IC-NRLF 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


1.  Mellita. 

4.   Strongylocentrotus. 


(PLATE  5.) 
2.  Echinaraclinius. 
5.  Ophrura. 


3    Asterias. 
6.  Arbacia. 


THE 


ANIMAL  LIFE 


OF    OUR 


SEA-SHORE. 


WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  THE  NEW  JERSEY 

COAST  AND   THE  SOUTHERN  SHORE 

OF  LONG   ISLAND. 


BY 

ANGELO  HEILPRIN, 

Professor  of  Invertebrate  Paleontology  at,  and  Curator-in-Charge  of,  the  Academy 

of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia;  Professor  of  Geology  at  the 

Wagner  Free  Institute  of  Science,  Philadelphia. 

AUTHOR   OF 

"Town  Geology  :  The  Lesson  of  the  Philadelphia  Rocks,"  "The  Geographical 

and  Geological  Distribution  of  Animals,"  "The  Geological 

Evidences  of  Evolution,"  etc. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY. 

1888. 


Copyright,  1888,  by  ANGKLO  HEILPRIN. 


H 


1 


PEEFAOE. 


IN  my  official  capacity  as  Curator  of  the  Acad- 
emy of  Natural  Sciences  I  have  been  frequently 
requested  to  prepare  a  small  hand-book  on  the 
local  fauna  of  Philadelphia  and  on  the  animal  life 
of  the  much-frequented  New  Jersey  coast.  For 
a  long  time  I  hesitated,  knowing  what  difficulties 
the  preparation  of  a  work  intended  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  the  popular  mind  and  of  the  more 
earnest  searcher  after  nature's  truths  would  entail. 
But  finally,  yielding  to  the  imputation  that  scien- 
tists, while  asking  much  for  themselves,  are  too 
apt  to  disregard  the  claims  of  the  scientifically- 
inclined  public,  I  consented  in  part,  and  now  pre- 
sent to  my  readers  the  following  pages  as  a  result 
of  my  determination  to  assist  in  the  cause  of  popu- 
lar instruction.  For  a  work  on  the  sea-shore  fauna 
there  has,  doubtless,  been  considerable  demand, 
and  I  can  but  hope  that  the  present  volume  may 
in  a  measure  fulfil  the  mission  for  which  it  is 
intended. 

The  illustrations  that  accompany  the  text  are  in 

3 


4  PREFACE. 

part  original,  but  in  the  main  they  are  culled  from 
the  works  of  DeKay,  Gould,  Morse,  A.  Agassiz, 
Tryon,  Smith,  Verrill,  and  Emerton,  to  whom, 
consequently,  I  am  placed  under  obligation.  To 
the  last-named  gentleman,  author  of  a  handy  little 
volume  designed  for  the  New  England  coast,  "  Life 
on  the  Sea-Shore,"  do  I  particularly  wish  to  ex- 
press my  acknowledgment.  The  student  who  de- 
sires to  enter  somewhat  more  fully  into  the  study 
of  our  sea-shore  fauna  than  is  possible  from  the 
following  pages  will  do  well  to  consult  Dr.  Leidy's 
paper,  "  Contributions  towards  a  Knowledge  of 
the  Marine  Invertebrate  Fauna  of  the  Coasts  of 
Rhode  Island  and  New  Jersey"  (published  in  the 
Journal  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Phila- 
delphia, vol.  iii.),  and  Prof.  VerrilPs  report  on  the 
"  Invertebrate  Animals  of  Vineyard  Sound,"  pre- 
pared for  the  United  States  Commission  of  Fish 
and  Fisheries  (1873). 

AISTGELO   HEILPRIK 

ACADEMY  OF  NATURAL  SCIENCES  OF  PHILADELPHIA, 
June  18,  1888. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I. — THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST 7 

II. — SQUIRTS,  POLYPS,  AND  JELLY-FISHES 54 

III.— STAR-FISHES,  SEA-URCHINS,  AND  SEA-CUCUMBERS  73 

IV.— OUR  CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS 81 

V. — WORMS,  MOSS-POLYPS,  SPONGES,  ETC 108 

VI. — SOME  COASTWISE  FISHES 120 


THE  ANIMAL  LIFE  OF  OUR  SEA-SHORE. 


i. 

THE  SHELL-FISH   OP  THE  COAST. 

ALTHOUGH  it  can  scarcely  be  said  that  the  New 
Jersey  shores  constitute  favorite  haunts  of  the 
molluscous  animals,  yet  interesting  forms  of  one 
kind  or  another  can  at  almost  all  times  be  found. 
Apart  from  the  commoner  species  that  are  habitu- 
ally met  with  on  the  sands,  the  '  harvester  of  the 
seas'  who  follows  in  the  track  of  recent  high- 
water,  or  gleans  the  product  of  a  stiff  south-easter, 
is  almost  sure  to  meet  at  this  time  with  some  of 
the  rarer  specimens,  which  are  generally  strangers 
to  the  visitors  to  the  shores.  Among  these  may 
possibly  be  a  cuttle-fish,  whose  body  has  been  hap- 
lessly cast  upon  the  sands,  and  left  by  the  retreat- 
ing waters  as  a  food-offering  to  the  gulls  and  other 
sea-birds  that  frequent  the  region. 

The  cuttle-fishes  of  the  New  Jersey  coast  are  not 
numerous,  and  they  are  rarely  met  with  along 
the  sands,  except  under  the  special  circumstances 
that  have  just  been  indicated.  In  the  deeper  and 
quieter  waters  of  the  numerous  inlets,  especially 
around  the  mouths  of  outflowing  streams,  where 
the  chances  of  stranding  are  less  imminent,  they 
are  not  exactly  uncommon,  and  have  even  been 
scooped  up  by  means  of  the  landing-net.  The 

7 


8  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE   COAST. 

common  form,  and  the  one  that  is  almost  alone 
met  with,  is  the  squid  or  calamary, — the  Loligo 
Pealii  of  naturalists, — an  animal  measuring  some 

9  inches  in  the  length  of  its  body,  or  18  inches 

including  the  length  of 
its  longest  arms.  None 
of  the  fabulous  mon- 
sters that  have  wrung 
from  the  poet  and  the 
novelist  their  mythi- 
cal conceptions  of  the 
4  devil-fish,'  or  any- 
thing that  at  all  ap- 
proaches in  dimen- 
sions the  famous  20- 
foot  specimen  for- 
merly preserved  in  the 
New  York  Aquarium, 
has  ever  been  noted 
from  this  part  of  the 
Atlantic  coast.  But 
whether  large  or  small 
our  animal  is  alike  in- 
LOLIGO  PEALII.  teresting.  The  beauti- 

ful tints  of  the  body,  which,  chameleon-like,  vary 
as  different  patches  of  pigment-particles  are  ex- 
posed to  the  surface,  cannot  fail  to  elicit  admiration, 
even  though  the  general  appearance  of  the  creature 
prove  at  first  a  trifle  repulsive.  There  are,  however,  a 
number  of  interesting  points  about  this  animal  which 
stamp  it  at  once  as  being  no  ordinary  specimen. 
In  the  first  place,  a  cuttle-fish,  of  whatever  form 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF   THE  COAST. 


it  may  be,  is  next  to  the  backboned  or  vertebrate 
animals — the  fishes,  reptiles,  birds,  and  quadru- 
peds— about  the  most  complex,  or,  if  you  choose, 
most  highly  organized,  of  the  entire  animal  series. 
It  takes  precedence  over  the  star-fish,  insect,  crab, 
and  lobster,  and,  among  its  own  class,  over  the 
snail,  clam,  and  oyster.  It  alone  among  the  thou- 
sands— nay,  hundreds  of  thousands — of  invertebrate 
animals,  or  those  lacking  a  backbone,  possesses  a 
distinct  covering  or  capsule  to  its  principal  nerve- 
mass,  the  brain,  thus  foreshadowing  the  structure 
which  is  so  distinctive  a  feature  of  all  the  higher 
animals.  The  skull 
of  the  cuttle-fish  has 
not  yet,  however, 
been  converted  into 
bone,  but  remains  in  a 
cartilaginous  condi- 
tion, recalling  in  great 
measure  the  condi- 
tion of  the  skull  in 
some  of  the  lower 
fishes,  the  sharks 
and  rays  and  stur- 
geon, for  example. 
Again,  we  note  a 
special  development 
of  the  sense  organs.  The  great  round  eyes  that 
are  situated  on  either  side  of  the  head  have  a  per- 
fection but  little  inferior  to  that  of  the  eyes  of  the 
highest  animals,  and  are  provided,  although  in  a 
somewhat  different  order  of  arrangement,  with  the 


EGG-CASES  OF  LOLIGO  ('SEA-GRAPE'). 


10  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

various  tunics  and  bodies  which  belong  to  the  most 
perfectly  constituted  eye. 

Should  you  have  succeeded  in  catching  or  finding 
a  squid,  then  follow  me  in  the  examination  of  its 
parts.  Observe  the  ten  arms  (or  more  properly  feet, 
as  it  is  by  means  of  these  that  the  animal  walks  or 
creeps  about,  head  downward),  two  longer  (ten- 
tacles) than  the  remaining  eight,  and  the  peculiar 
cup-like  bodies  with  which  they  are  furnished  at 
their  extremities.  These  so-called  i  acetabula'  are 
in  reality  organs  of  adhesion,  each  one  acting  on 
the  vacuum  process  which  is  familiar  to  all  boys 
who  have  experimented  in  brick-lifting  with  the 
leather  '  sucker'  and  string.  The  animal  can,  there- 
fore, not  only  entwine  its  arms  about  the  object  of 
its  special  search,  but  can  stick  to  it  by  means  of  its 
sucking  disks.  Look  between  the  arms,  and  at  their 
base  you  will  observe  the  mouth :  gently  separate 
the  mouth,  and  you  will  bring  to  light  a  pair  of  re- 
markable jaws  or  beaks,  almost  exactly  like  those 
of  a  parrot,  only  reversed, — i.e.,  the  larger  beak  is 
below,  and  the  small  one  above.  On  one  side  of  the 
animal — which  would  be  the  rear,  if  the  creature 
were  held  head  downward — you  will  observe  in  the 
gill-cavity,  which  is  enclosed  in  a  lap  of  the  body- 
mantle,  the  peculiar  tubular  organ  known  to  nat- 
uralists as  the  '  funnel.'  Through  this  funnel  much 
of  the  water  that  is  contained  in  the  gill-cavity,  and 
is  used  in  the  aeration  of  the  blood,  is  periodically 
passed  out  by  the  animal.  The  stream  of  ejected 
water,  reacting  upon  the  surrounding  medium, 
causes  a  rebound  in  the  animal,  the  extent  of  which 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  H 

will  naturally  depend  upon  the  force  and  quantity  of 
the  water  ejected.  This  retrograde  motion  appears 
to  be  the  more  general  form  of  movement  of  the 
animal  at  such  times  when  it  is  not  actually  creep- 
ing about,  head  downward,  along  the  oceanic  floor, 
although  through  a  twisting  of  the  funnel,  or  even 
by  means  of  the  fin  attached  to  the  hinder  part  of 
the  body  alone,  the  animal  is  enabled  to  pursue  a 
forward  course  as  well.  The  funnel  also  serves  as 
an  exit  to  that  very  remarkable  ink-like  substance, 
known  as  sepia,  or  true  India  ink,  which  is  secreted 
by  a  special  glandular  body  (ink-bag)  lodged  in  the 
body-substance.  Most  of  the  cuttle-fishes  are  pro- 
vided with  this  inky  material,  which,  indeed,  consti- 
tutes their  principal  weapon  of  defence.  Instead  of 
boldly  sallying  forth  to  meet  their  would-be  assail- 
ants, wisdom  has  guided  these  animals  to  avoid  their 
more  powerful  opponents,  which  they  do  by  cloud- 
ing the  waters  with  a  heavy  discharge  of  sepia. 
Under  cover  of  the  darkness  thus  produced  they 
generally  manage  to  escape.  The  effect  of  the 
sepia-discharge  not  only  suffices  to  discourage 
the  enemy,  but  frequently  from  its  copiousness 
proves  deadly  to  it.  I  well  remember  my  first 
dredging  exploits  in  the  Bay  of  Naples,  when,  flushed 
with  the  excitement  attending  a  rare  capture,  I  un- 
guardedly dropped  a  cuttle-fish  into  a  tub  contain- 
ing my  choicest  specimens  from  the  deep.  In  an 
instant  the  vision  of  sea-horses,  star-fishes,  sea- 
anemones,  etc.,  faded  off  into  a  cloud  of  increasing 
blackness,  through  which  no  beam  of  -life  again 
penetrated  to  the  surface. 


12 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 


A  form  of  squid  very  similar  to  the  one  just  de- 
scribed, and  largely  replacing  it  in  the  northern 
waters,  is  the  Ommastrephes 
sagittatus,  in  which  the  ten- 
tacular arms  are  of  compara- 
tively short  length,  and  the 
cornea  of  the  eye  perforated, 
so  as  to  permit  of  the  entry 
of  sea-water  to  the  lens. 
"While  rare  with  us,  this 
animal  sometimes  appears 
in  the  northern  waters  in 
immense  shoals,  following 
in  the  wake  of  the  mackerel, 
which  constitutes  its  selected 
food.  In  this  condition  it 
does  not  hesitate  to  enter  the 
pounds  and  weirs,  or  to  nav- 
igate between  the  piles  of 
wharves,  darting  with  the 
swiftness  of  an  arrow  into 
the  midst  of  its  prey,  and 
pouncing  upon  the  neck  of 
a  selected  victim.  In  this 
pursuit  of  the  mackerel  the 
squid  may  be  observed  to 
change  color  frequently,  adapting  itself  in  tone, 
by  an  intuitive  manipulation  of  the  pigment-bodies 
(chromatophores),  to  the  surroundings  which  it 
traverses.  The  squid,  like  many  other,  cuttle- 
fishes, is  in  a  measure  nocturnal  in  its  habits,  and 
is  thought  to  be  fond  of  gazing  at  the  moon. 


OMMASTREPHES  SAGITTATUS. 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE   COAST. 


13 


This  habit  appears  to  account  for  the  numbers  fre- 
quently found  stranded  at  the  time  of  full  moon,  the 
animal,  while  gazing  at  the  luminary,  incautiously 
swimming  backward 
and  befouling  itself 
on  the  sands. 

A  word  or  two 
about  the  cuttle-bone. 
"We  frequently  hear 
of  this  substance  in 
connection  with  the 
keeping  of  canary- 
birds,  but  probably 
there  are  not  many 
who  associate  it  with 
a  creature  at  all  re- 
sembling our  squid. 

If  we  slice  open  the  back  of  our  animal, 
or  that  side  which  lies  opposite  to  the 
funnel,  we  observe  embedded  within 
the  flesh  a  long,  horny  style,  which  is 
usually  designated  the  '  gladius'  or  pen. 
It  may  be  said  to  constitute  a  sort  of  in- 
ternal skeleton,  giving  a  certain  amount 
of  rigidity  to  the  body;  but  its  exact 
functions  are  not  known.  In  some  of  the 
cuttle-fishes,  notably  those  which  have  re- 
ceived the  name  of  sepia,  the  gladius  is  replaced  by 
a  limy  plate,  which  is  in  reality  the  cuttle-*  bone' 
of  the  canary-bird  cage. 

It  may  be  your  good  fortune  in  walking  along 
the  beach  to  stumble  upon  a  very  beautiful  and 
2 


SEPIOLA  ATLANTICA. 


PEN  OF 
SQUID. 


14 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 


delicate  coiled  shell,  looking  somewhat  like  that 
of  an  ordinary  snail,  but  differing  in  that  the  coil 
is  open,  and  that  it  is  distinctly  chambered,  besides 
having  a  pearly  lining.  This  is  the  shell 
of  another  member  of  the  cuttle-fish 
group,  known  to  fame  as  the  Spirula. 
Myriads  of  these  shells  are  sometimes 
found  about  favored  coast- lines,  but,  sin- 
gular though  it  may  appear,  the  sight  of 
the  living  animal  is  one  of  nature's  rari- 
ties. The  record  of  observed  specimens 
thus  far  indicates  less  than  a  dozen  individuals.  Ac- 
cordingly, we  know  but  little  of  the  habits  of  the 
animal  inhabiting  the  shell,  and  equally  little  of  its 

distribution.     This  holds 
also  true  of  the  '  Pearly 
Nautilus/  a  not  very  dis- 
tant ally  of  the  Spirula, 
whose  beautiful  shells  are 
offered  for  sale  at  nearly 
all  the  marts  along  the 
sea-shore,  and  are   even 
thought  by  many  to  have 
been  gathered  in  the  vi- 
cinity.    But  the  home  of 
the  Nautilus  is  a  distant 
one,   and  its   cradle   not 
improbably  the  deep-sea. 
Chance  has  on  more  than  one  occasion  brought 
to  our  shores  a  rare  specimen  in  the  shell  of  the 
'  Paper  Nautilus/  or  Argonaut,  that  singular  crea- 
ture whose  Ulyssean  journeys  were  supposed  to 


SHELL  OF  PEARLY  NAUTILUS. 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  15 

have  been  performed  under  full  sail.  The  broadly- 
expanded,  uplifted  arms,  which  are  seen  on  many 
of  the  older  illustrations,  and  which  were  supposed 
to  catch  the  gentle  zephyrs  of  the  purple  sea,  are 
now  known  to  be  closely  appressed  to  the  side  of 


SHELL  OF  ARGONAUT. 

the  shell,  which  they  in  truth  secrete.  Far,  there- 
fore, from  presenting  the  graceful  outlines  to  which 
we  have  been  accustomed,  the  Argonaut  in  swim- 
ming much  more  nearly  calls  forth  the  image  of  a 
retreating  sneak.  But  the  shell,  considered  apart 
from  the  animal,  is  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  and 
delicate  that  has  been  fashioned  by  nature.  Owing 
to  its  great  frailness  it  is  but  rarely  found  unin- 
jured, the  free  margins  usually  exhibiting  nicks 
and  cracks  of  greater  or  less  extent.  Hence  the 
value  attached  to  perfect  specimens.  For  one  such 
specimen  of  unusual  size,  formerly  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  it  is 
claimed  that  the  purchase-money  amounted  to  $500. 
The  shell  belongs  exclusively  to  the  female,  and  its 


16  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

sole  purpose  appears  to  be  the  protection  of  the 
eggs  which  are  deposited  within  it. 

A  live  Argonaut  was  captured  at  Long  Branch 
in  August,  1876,  and  its  habits  in  confinement 
watched  for  a  period  of  some  eight  or  nine  days. 
When  not  swimming,  the  animal  frequently  re- 
verses its  position,  crawling  about  with  its  shell  on 
its  back  in  the  manner  of  a  snail ;  at  other  times, 
again, t  it  is  said  to  paddle  about  much  like  an 
oarsman. 

MARINE    SNAILS. 

The  ocean  has   retreated,  and  upon  the  broad 

strand  that  shelves  grad- 
ually to  the  still  breaking 
crest,  myriads  of  shells 
and  shell-fragments  lie 
scattered  about  in  curling 
zigzags.  Among  these 
we  recognize  the  spiral 
shell  of  the  snail,  and  the 
half-shell  of  the  clam  and 
its  allies;  more  rarely, 
both  valves  of  the  latter 
are  found,  still  firmly 
united  by  the  binding 
ligament.  Some  of  these 
contain  the  living  animal, 
but  by  far  the  greater 
number  have  been  robbed 

PEAB-CONCH  (Fulgur  carica).         Qf  their  possessors  by  the 

billows  that  consigned  them  to  futurity. 

Of  the  snails  the  form  that  is  most  apt  to  at- 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  1<J 

tract  immediate  attention  is  the  pear-conch,  which 
is  about  the  largest  shell  of  the  coast, — indeed,  one 
of  the  largest  shells  of  the  entire  North  American 
coast.  Not  uncommonly  the  animal  is  found  within 
the  shell,  where,  it  will  be  observed,  it  has  closely 
withdrawn  itself,  partially  closing  up  the  aperture 
by  means  of  a  horny  disk  attached  to  its  foot,  known 
as  the  '  operculum.'  Thus  shut  up  in  its  house  the 
animal  is  fairly  secure  from  its  enemies,  and,  if  suf- 
ficiently fortunate  to  regain  the  incoming  waters, 
may  again  rejoice  in  its  favorite  haunts.  But  too 
long  exposure  to  the  dry 
atmosphere  will  prove 
fatal  to  it,  as  it  like- 
wise would  to  the  greater 
number  of  marine  snails. 
The  pear-conch,  of 
which  we  recognize  two 
species,  one  furnished 
with  tubercles  on  the  an- 
gles of  its  whorls  (Fulgur 
carica),  and  the  other 
practically  devoid  of  tu- 
bercles, and  showing  a  ca- 
nalicule  running  around 
the  tops  of  the  whorls  (F. 
canaliculatus),  inhabits  the 
tidal  zone,  where  it  buries 
itself  to  the  depth  of  a  few 
inches  in  the  sand.  Its  FuLGUR  C^ALICULATUS. 
presence  can  frequently  be  detected  by  hollows  in 
the  sand,  into  which  it  has  introduced  itself  by  bur- 
b  2* 


18  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

rowing.  There  are  probably  few  visitors  to  the 
beach  who  have  not  observed  and  pondered  over 
the  coiled  strings  of  parchment-like  capsules  which 
here  and  there  dot  the  shore.  They  have  been 
likened  by  some  to  the  rattlesnake  rattle,  by  others 
they  are  loosely  spoken  of  as  <  sea-weeds/  under 
which  designation  many  a  helpless  animal  form  has 
been  compelled  to  fall.  The  capsules  on  the  string 
are  in  reality  the  egg-cases  of  the  pear-conch, 
and  in  order  to  satisfy  yourself  on  this  point 
slice  open  one  such,  and  note  the  number  of 
embryo  conchs  that  it  contains.  In  the  dry  cap- 
sules probably  only  the  minute  shells  will  be 
found,  but  in  the  ribbons  that  appear  fresh  and 
elastic  the  tiny  embryos  present  themselves  in 
full  activity.  It  will  be  observed  that  toward  one 
end  of  the  ribbon  the  capsules  become  smaller  and 
smaller,  and  more  distantly  removed  from  one  an- 
other, while  toward  the  opposite  end  they  become 
larger  and  more  crowded.  The  attenuated  end,  if 
entire,  will  almost  invariably  be  found  to  terminate 
in  a  pebble  or  shell-fragment,  to  which,  as  to  an 
anchor,  it  has  been  secured  by  the  animal  imme- 
diately after  extrusion,  and  for  the  purpose  of  ob- 
taining a  firm  base  of  attachment.  It  may  appear 
remarkable  that  such  a  large  ribbon  should  ever 
have  been  contained  within  a  single  body,  for  really 
if  wound  up  it  would  form  a  mass  even  larger  than 
the  entire  animal.  It  can  only  be  supposed  that 
the  capsules  are  a  long  time  in  making,  appearing 
gradually  one  after  the  other  during  a  considerable 
period  of  ribbon-manufacture  and  extrusion.  They, 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 


19 


doubtless,  also  to  a  certain  extent  become  swelled 
up  by  the  water  which  they  must  necessarily  imbibe. 

The  exact  period  of  spawning  of  these  pear- 
conchs  upon  our  coast  has  not  yet  been  definitely 
ascertained,  but  from  the  frequency  with  which 
the  fresh  ribbons  are  found,  it  is  not  unlikely 
that  the  spawning-season  extends  over  a  considera- 
ble part  of  the  year.  So  secretly  and  quietly  does 
the  conch  attend  to  its- 
affairs,  that  it  is  only  at 
the  widest  intervals  that 
it  has  been  observed  in 
the  process  of  spawning ; 
indeed,  it  is  well  known 
that  there  are  but  few 
naturalists  who  have  ob- 
served it  in  this  condi- 
tion. There  are  two 
kinds  of  ribbons  found 

on  the  beach, — one  in  which  the  individual  capsules 
have  a  sharp  median  edge,  and  the  other  in  which 
the  capsules  are  doubly  carinated  or  keeled,  appear- 
ing like  a  wheel  with  a  double  flange.  The  former 
belongs  to  Fulgur  canaliculata^  and  the  latter  to 
Fulgur  carica.  Each  capsule — of  which  there  may 
be  some  75  or  100  on  a  single  ribbon — shows  a  round 
opening  at  about  the  middle  of  its  outer  border, 
through  which  the  embryo  conchs  make  their 
escape. 

A  word  may  not  be  amiss  here  with  regard  to 
the  blue  or  blackish  specimens  that  you  have  col- 
lected. The  suspicion  has  for  some  time  existed 


1  2 

EGG-CAPSULES  OF  1,  FULGUR  CARICA; 

OP  2,  F.  CANALICULATA. 


20  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

that  these  dark-stained  conchs,  and  other  shells  of  a 
like  character,  have  heen  washed  out  of  a  subma- 
rine deposit,  or  from  some  clay-bank  containing 
fossil  remains.  That  there  is  some  reason  for  con- 
sidering all  such  as  fossils  is  indicated  in  the  fact 
that,  on  and  off',  specimens  not  now  known  to  in- 
habit the  "New  Jersey  coast  are  thrown  upon  the 
beach,  some  of  which  have  been  recognized  as 
fossils  elsewhere.  But  for  the  present  it  is  not 
safe  to  accept  the  hypothesis  for  an  established 
fact,  especially  as  a  number  of  the  more  brightly- 
colored  shells,  such  as  the  scallops,  have  at  least  in 
part  the  distinctive  deep-blue  tinge. 

Among  the  rarer  shells  of  the  coast  is  the  whelk 
(Buccinum  undatum\  whose  habitat  is  more  prop- 
erly the  region  lying  north 
of  Cape  Cod  peninsula,  ex- 
tending thence  eastward  to 
the  European  continent. 
With  us  it  is  generally 
found  in  a  largely  dilapi- 
dated condition,  indicating 
considerable  wear,  and  a  not 
improbably  distant  home. 
It  inhabits  a  zone  extend- 
ing from  low  water  very 
nearly  to  the  greatest  depths, 
where  it  plies  its  trade  as 
one  of  the  most  voracious 
of  the  marine  snails.  Great 
numbers  of  the  whelk  are 
caught  (more  especially  on  the  north  European 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  21 

coast,  where  it  is  extensively  used  as  an  article  of 
food,  and  as  fish-bait)  by  dropping  dead  cod  in  a 
wicker-basket  to  a  muddy  bottom,  where  the  ani- 
mals are  easily  attracted.  The  whelk-fishery  of 
Whitestable  flat,  England,  is  said  to  have  yielded 
£12,000  yearly  immediately  prior  to  1866. 

The  whelk  is  a  favorite  article  of  food  with  many 
fishes,  particularly  the  cod,  and  as  many  as  30  and 
40  of  its  shells  have  been  taken 
from   the  stomach  of  a  single 
fish.      Eventually  these    shells 
may  become  the  habitations  of 
one  of  the  numerous  species  of 
hermit   crab.    -  Indeed,  on   the 
New  England  coast  it  is  rather 
a  rarity  to   meet  with  a  fresh 

inn,!       -o        •  i  •   i    •      EGG-CAPSULES  OF  WHELK. 

shell  of  the  Buccmum  which  is 
not  already  tenanted  by  a  hermit. 

Cast  your  eyes  for  a  moment  from  the  glistening 
sands  towards  the  mud-flats  and  tide-pools  which 
have  been  left  by  the  retreating  waters.  Here,  in 
these  quieter  realms,  you  are  almost  sure  to  meet 
with  a  number  of  interesting  molluscan  forms, 
among  which  are  two  or  three  near  cousins  of  the 
whelk.  They  are  small  snails,  whose  shells  barely 
measure  three-quarters  of  an  inch  in  length.  They 
are  figured  on  Plate  1,  Figs.  5, 11,  6,  and  are  known 
as  dog-whelks  (Nassa  trivittata,  Nassa  vibex,  and 
Nassa  obsoleta).  It  will  be  seen  that,  while  the 
shells  differ  considerably  from  those  of  the  true 
whelk,  they  still  have  much  the  same  general  char- 
acter, especially  noticeable  in  the  form  of  the  aper- 


22  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

ture,  and  its  direct  truncature ;  but  the  base  of  the 
inner  side  of  the  aperture  shows  more  or  less  of  a 
fold,  which  is  wanting  in  the  whelk.  These  active 
creatures  of  the  tide-water  pools,  whose  long  and 
slender  foot  constitutes  so  marked  a  feature  of 
their  anatomy,  offer  an  interesting  study  to  the 
lounger  on  the  sands,  and  even  if  their  habitat  is  a 
little  moist  a  pair  of  rubbers  will  readily  bring  you 
to  them  without  discomfort.  Observe  them  gliding 
along  the  surface  of  the  mud,  furrowing  the  soft 
bottom  with  their  extended  foot.  A  few,  possi- 
bly, are  floating,  with  the  foot  directed  upwards. 
The  dog-whelk  is  decidedly  predaceous  in  its  habits, 
boring  rapidly  through  the  shells  of  other  mol- 
lusks  in  quest  of  animal  food,  and  creating  gen- 
eral havoc  in  its  neighborhood.  Indeed,  it  feeds 
not  only  upon  live  flesh  but  upon  dead  flesh  as 
well,  acting  the  part  of  a  scavenger.  Hence  the 
use  to  which  this  little  creature  has  been  put  to 
clean  out  the  foul  animal  matter  from  aquaria. 
Its  own  shell  appears  frequently  pierced  with  a 
hole,  and  rumor  points  towards  cannibalism  on  the 
part  of  the  animal.  One  of  the  foreign  dog-whelks 
(Nassa  reticulata)  is  known  to  prove  exceedingly  de- 
structive to  the  oyster-fares  of  the  French  coast, 
and  so  numerous  is  it  that  a  single  tide  has  yielded 
upwards  of  14,000  specimens  on  a  shore  area  of 
about  100  acres.  This  species  has  been  known  to 
bore  through  the  shell  of  a  three-year  oyster  within 
eight  hours,  and  to  destroy  an  oyster  of  a  single 
month  in  a  half-hour. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  dog-whelk  shells  of  our 


1. 


FIG. 

1.  Natica  heros. 

2.  Melampus  bidentatus. 

3.  Natica  pusilla. 

4.  "       duplicata. 

5.  Nassa  trivittata. 

6.  "      vibex. 

7.  Eupleura  caudata. 

8.  Urosalpinx  cinerea. 

9.  10.    Purpura  lapillus. 

11.  Nassa  obsoleta. 

12.  Scalaria  multistriata. 

13.  "        lineata. 

14.  Triforis  nigrocinctus. 

15.  Crepidula  fornicata. 

16.  Columbella  lunata  (X  2). 

17.  "          avara. 

18.  Turbonilla  elegans  (X  2). 

19.  Cerithiopsis  Greenii  (X  4) 

20.  •    "  Emersonii 

(XU). 


FIG. 

21.  Cerithiopsis  tercbralis 

(XU). 

22.  Littorina  rudis. 

23.  "         palliata. 

24.  Littorinella  minuta  (X  2). 

25.  Crepidula  convexa. 

26.  "         plana. 

27.  Odostomia  producta, 

28.  "          fusca  (X  3). 

29.  "          trifida. 

30.  Actseon  puncto-striata 

(X3). 

31.  Cylichna  oryza  (X  2). 

32.  Crucibulum  striatum. 

33.  Bulla  solitaria. 

34.  Utriculus  canaliculatus. 

35.  Odostomia  trifida. 

36.  Eulima  oleacea. 

37.  Odostomia  impressa  (X  2). 


V*  The  representation  X  2,  etc.,  indicates  that  the  figure  has  been  enlarged 
to  two  linear  dimensions. 


PL.  1. 


I/ 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  23 

coast  are  inhabited  by  hermit  crabs,  which  in  many 
cases,  possibly,  obtained  possession  through  the  right 
of  force  of  arms.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  certain 
that  the  hermit  has  been  providentially  provided 
for,  and  that  it  has  much  to  offer  by  way  of  grati- 
tude to  the  dog-whelks.  The  Nassas  are  probably 
all  very  tenacious  of  life ;  a  specimen  of  Nassa  obso- 
leta  submitted  to  me  from  Atlantic  City  survived 
for  a  full  year  the  dry  atmosphere  of  a  closet  with 
an  artificially-heated  wall. 

The  Nassas  are  not  the  only  inhabitants  of  the 
tide-pools  either,  for  with  them  we  find  associated 
one  or  more  forms  of  periwinkles,  various  small 
fishes,  and  the  ever-active  hermit.  Other  organ- 
isms, whose  existence  would  scarcely  have  been 
thought  of,  also  lurk  here.  One  of  these  is  the 
founder  of  a  colony  which  has  settled  on  the  back 
of  old  Nassa  obsoleta,  and  there  spread  out  a  crisp 
brown  covering,  much  resembling  dry  moss,  which 
might  be  readily  mistaken  for  the  horny  covering 
(epidermis)  which  belongs  to  most 
shells.  The  colony  is  one  of  polyps, 
next  of  kin  to  the  Sertularia  or  sea-fir, 
whose  delicate  bunchy  masses  lie  scat- 
tered over  the  beach,  or  gently  oscil- 
late in  the  calmer  waters  of  favored  „ 

POLYP    COLONY 

localities.  Indeed,  our  polyp  is  a  near  OF  HYDRACTI- 
ally  of  the  common  fresh-water  hydra,  NIAECHIN^- 
and,  what  may  at  first  sight  appear  incredible,  also 
of  the  free-swimming  Medusa  or  jelly-fish.  Under 
a  magnifier  the  brown  covering  is  seen  to  rise  up 
into  simple  and  compound  spines,  from  between 


24  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

which,  in  the  living  condition  of  the  organism,  the 
tiny  white  polyps,  with  their  circle  of  tentacles, 
may  be  seen  to  rise  to  a  height  of  perhaps  a 
quarter  inch  or  so.  Between  these  tentacular 
polyps  again,  which  are  strictly  those  elements 
of  the  compound  organism  which  secure  nutrition 
to  the  colony  at  large,  may  be  found  at  times  a 
number  of  smaller  bodies,  without  tentacles,  which 
give  origin  to,  and  carry,  the  egg-capsules,  in  each 
of  which  there  are  from  one  to  five  eggs.  Thus 
does  this  diminutive  colony  live  in  concert,  dif- 
ferent parts  administering  to  the  different  wants  of 
the  assembled  multitude.  Most  of  the  crusts  of  the 
Hydmctinia  echinata,  for  so  the  polyp  is  called,  are 
found  on  the  hermit-inhabited  shells,  but  naturally 
where  these  have  been  exposed  for  too  long  a  time 
to  the  dry  atmosphere  only  the  crust  remains. 

Along  with  the  dog- whelks,  we  find  many  of  the 
tide-water  pools  inhabited  by  a  number  of  small 
round-mouthed  shells,  known  as  periwinkles  or 
Littorinas,  a  northern  species  of  which 
(Littorina  litorea\  inhabiting  both  the 
American  and  European  coasts,  is  the 
common  periwinkle  of  the  English 
markets.  These  interesting  creatures, 
of  which  there  are  three  species*  on 
the  New  Jersey  coast,  are  truly  marine 
in  habit,  but  still  prefer  for  their  habi- 
tations  localities  that  are  only  partially 

*  Since  the  above  was  written  Littorina  litorea  has  been  found 
at  Atlantic  City  ;  it  is  a  much  less  elevated  shell  than  the  common 
large  periwinkle  of  our  coast  (L.  irrorata). 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  25 

covered  by  the  sea.  We  find  them  clinging  to  rocks, 
to  old  wharf-piers  and  other  immersed  timber,  to 
sea-weeds  and  the  grass-culms  of  marshes,  as  well 
as  enjoying  the  more  placid  retreats  afforded  by  the 
sluggish  waters  of  the  tide-wrater  marshes,  pools, 
and  ditches.  The  positions  selected  by  them,  usu- 
ally just  within  the  reach  of  high-water,  would 
seem  to  indicate  a  positive  aversion  on  the  part  of 
the  animal  to  the  full  waters  of  the  sea,  and  they 
appear  rarely  to  venture  into  the  embrace  of  the 
surf.  One  species"  of  our  coast  (Littorina  rudis)  has 
been  known  to  live  a  week  out  of  water,  while  an- 
other, from  the  West  Indies,  survived  similar  depri- 
vation for  a  full  year;  a  species  from  the  North 
European  coast,  again,  has  been  found  to  bear  with- 
out apparent  discomfort  a  submersion  of  eighteen 
hours  in  fresh  water. 

The  largest  species  of  the  New  Jersey  coast  is 
the  big  brown  periwinkle  (Littorina  irrorata\  which 
not  infrequently  measures  upwards  of  an  inch  in 
length.  It  is  readily  distinguished  by  its  robust, 
deeply-colored  shell,  which  shows  numerous  prom- 
inent revolving  lines  on  its  surface.  A  much  smaller 
form  is  the  somewhat  flattened  and  obtuse  Littorina 
palliata  (PI.  l,Fig.  23),  whose  yellowish  color,  more 
or  less  speckled  with  brown,  serves  to  distinguish  it. 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  periwinkle  is  anywhere 
extensively  used  for  food  on  the  American  coast, 
although  prodigious  quantities  are  periodically 
brought  to  and  sent  from  the  British  markets.  It 
is  estimated  that  about  the  year  1865  the  English 
periwinkle-supply  amounted  -to  not  less  than  2000 
B  3 


26  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

bushels  per  week  during  the  months  of  March  to 
August  inclusive,  and  500  bushels  per  week  for 
the  remaining  six  months.  At  least  1000  persons, 
mainly  women  and  children,  were  employed  in  the 
gathering. 

All  the  periwinkles  are  vegetable  feeders,  and 
are  thus  sharply  defined  in  habit  from  the  strictly 
carnivorous  forms  that  have  been  thus  far  consid- 
ered. It  may  be  said  en  passant  that  with  compara- 
tively few  exceptions  all  the  snails  whose  shells 
have  an  even,  round  mouth  are  phytophagous  in 
habit,  living  exclusively  on  vegetable  substances, 
while  those  which  have  the  shell  aperture  either 
truncated  or  produced  into  a  canal  of  greater  or 
less  length  are  carnivorous.  But  both  forms  have 
the  mouth  provided  with  a  peculiar  chitinous  or 
horny  ribbon,  known  as  the  '  lingual  ribbon'  or 
6  radula,'  which  is  closely  beset  with  minute  teeth, 
and  by  its  backward  and  forward  movement  serves 
to  rasp  down  objects  that  are  brought  in  its  way. 
It  thus  largely  assists  in  the  process  of  mastication ; 
but  probably  one  of  its  functions  is  the  boring  of 
the  holes  in  4  foreign'  shells  through  which  an  at- 
tack is  made  upon  the  enemy.  The  coiled  lingual 
apparatus  of  the  common  European  Littorina  litorea, 
which  has  also  been  introduced  on  the  JSTew  Eng- 
land coast,  measures  two  and  a  half  inches  in  length, 
and  contains  about  600  rows  of  teeth.  The  action 
of  this  ribbon  may  be  well  observed  in  the  case  of 
snails  that  creep  up  the  glass  walls  of  aquaria. 

An  exception  to  the  rule  which  defines  round- 
mouthed  snails  to  be  vegetable  feeders  is  the 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  2*7 

Natica  (PL  1,  Figs.  1,  4),  one  of  whose  best  repre- 
sentatives is  the  common  globular  shell,  of  about 
the  size  of  an  apple,  which  is  found  almost  every- 
where along  the  beach.  The  natics,  with  strong 
carnivore  propensities,  are  markedly  predaceous  in 
their  habits,  moving  about  rapidly  in  their  sandy 
homes  in  quest  of  food,  which  they  usually  find  in 
the  shell-fish  buried  at  some  little  depth  beneath 
the  surface.  The  making  of  the  larger  round  holes 
which  appear  in  such  perfection  on  the  shells  of 
many  of  the  bivalves  is  commonly  attributed  to  the 
Natica,  but  the  exact  amount  of  guilt  attaching  to 
this  creature  has  never  yet  been  determined.  The 


NATICA  EXTENDED. 

Naticas  have  certain  peculiarities  of  structure  which 
it  will  be  well  to  notice.  You  will  observe,  if  you 
have  succeeded  in  finding  more  than  the  empty 
shell,  that  the  animal  is  completely  retractile,  and, 
further,  that  it  has  cased  itself  in  by  means  of  a 
horny  lid  or  '  operculum/  which  is  attached  to  the 
under  surface  of  the  creeping  disk  or  foot.  This 
foot  is  greatly  produced  in  front,  where  it  is  re- 
flected back  in  the  form  of  a  hood,  covering  the 


28  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

head  and  tentacles.  It  is  a  powerful  excavating 
implement,  and  by  it  the  animal  is  enabled  to  bur- 
row in  the  sand  like  a  mole.  The  Natica  is  blind, 
being  destitute  of  eyes. 

Of  the  three  species  of  our  coast  the  commoner 
forms  are  the  two  large  species  known  as  Natica 
her os  (PI.  1,  Fig.  1)  and  Natica  duplicata  (Fig.  4): 


NIDUS  OF  NATICA  HEBOS. 


the  first  may  be  recognized  by  its  larger  size  and 
more  globular  outline,  and  in  having  a  deep  hole 
(umbilicus)  immediately  alongside  the  aperture. 
In  Natica  duplicata  the  shell  is  more  depressed  and 


NIDUS  OF  NATICA  DUPLICATA. 


somewhat  oblique,  while  the  umbilical  aperture 
is  closed  by  a  thick  ( callous'  expansion.  The 
third  species  is  Natica  pusilla.  In  your  rambles 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  29 

along  the  beach  you  cannot  fail  to  have  noticed 
peculiar  gray,  collar-like  bodies  scattered  about, 
some  of  them  forming  almost  complete  circles,  and 
measuring  six  inches  or  more  across.  Examined, 
these  collars  are  seen  to  be  made  up  of  minute  sand- 
particles  glued  together,  and  if  held  up  to  the  light 
exhibit  an  almost  innumerable  number  of  translu- 
cent spots.  These  spots  correspond  to  the  positions 
of  egg-cases  which  are  distributed  throughout  the 
mass  in  a  single  layer,  and  in  quincunx  order. 
The  whole  is,  in  fact,  the  egg-ribbon  or  '  nidus'  of 
the  Natiea — a  construction  unlike  that  of  any  other 
mollusk.  Just  how  it  is  made  still  remains  a  mys- 
tery, but  it  appears  that  as  it  is  extruded  in  the 
form  of  a  viscous  mass  it  is  immediately  moulded 
over  the  external  face  of  the  shell,  which  gives  to 
it  its  peculiar  spiral  curve.  The  coating  of  mucus 
then  draws  to  it  the  sand-particles  which  line  it  on 
either  side.  Two  forms  of  this  ribbon  occur  on 
our  coast — one,  a  simple  collar  with  a  constricted 
neck,  the  other,  sharply  ruffled  on  its  border.  The 
former  belongs  to  Natica  heros,  the  latter  to  N.  du- 
plicata.  The  crowded  little  pouches,  each  of  about 
the  size  of  a  spangle,  which  are  frequently  found 
on  one  side  of  the  collar,  are  the  egg-capsules  of 
the  dog- whelk  (Nassa). 

Of  the  several  other  species  of  marine  snails 
occurring  on  our  coast  a  few  are  found  only  at  rare 
intervals,  and  not  unlikely  their  shells  have  been 
merely  washed  hither  without  the  animal  itself 
living  along  the  immediate  coast-border.  Among 
these  are  the  auger-shell  (Terebra  dislocata),  a  com- 

3* 


30  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

nion  species  of  the  Southern  shore,  wentletrap 
(Scalaria,  PL  1,  Figs.  12,  13),  and  purple  (Purpura 
lapillus,  PL  1,  Figs.  9, 10).  By  pressing  on  the  oper- 
culum  of  the  last-named  a  fluid  is  released  of  a  dull 
crimson  color,  much  resembling  some  of  the  purples 
of  antiquity;  indeed,  it  was  from  one  of  the  species 
of  this  genus  that  the  ancients  obtained  some  of 
their  more  highly  prized  dyes.  The  purple  is  a 
rough  customer  among  the  oyster-  and  muscle-beds, 
where  its  depredations  extend  as  well  to  the  dead 
as  to  the  live  animal.  It  is  not,  however,  satisfied 
with  these  delicacies  alone,  but  will  also  venture  on 
limpets,  barnacles,  dead  fish,  etc.  If  by  habit  a 
pirate,  the  purple  in  turn  suffers  from  the  piracy  of 
other  animals,  and  largely  so  from  the  seemingly 
harmless  hermit-crabs.  These  have  on  more  than 
one  occasion  been  observed  to  sally  forth  under 
protection  of  their  borrowed  castles,  and  clean  out, 
so  to  say,  the  purple,  dragging  their  unfortunate 
victim  from  the  shell.  In  one  such  encounter,  as 
narrated  by  Mr.  Crowther,  of  Whitby,  England, 
the  attacking  party  were  shielded  by  the  shells  of 
four  distinct  species  of  snails — a  dog-whelk,  peri- 
winkle, troque,  and  purple. 

Partaking  largely  of  the  habits  of  the  purple  is 
the  <  drill'  (Urosalpinx  cinerea,  PL  1,  Fig.  8),  a  name 
suggestive  of  the  methods  employed  by  this  animal 
to  obtain  its  food.  Like  the  last-named,  it  is  a  great 
destroyer  of  the  oyster. 

Our  description  of  this  section  of  the  shore-fauna 
would  not  be  complete  without  a  special  reference 
to  the  sandal  or  slipper-limpet  (Orepidula)  and  the 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  31 

very  common  (cylindrical)  small  shell  that  is  found 
almost  everywhere  among  the  tide-water  sedges  or 
grasses.  The  latter  is  the  Melampus  Udentatus  (PL 
1,  fig.  2),  an  air-breathing  or  pulmoniferous  mollusk, 
like  the  common  garden-snail,  but  requiring  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  salt  water  for  its  happiness.  Why 
this  should  be  necessary  is  not  exactly  known,  the 
animal  breathing  by  means  of  a  true  lung,  as  in 
the  case  of  all  true  land-snails  (Palmonatd).  The 
slipper-limpets  are  readily  recognized  by  their  some- 
what boat-shaped  shellsj  which  are  found  either 
loose  by  themselves,  or  attached  to  other  shells  and 
stones,  their  outlines  being  largely  modified  accord- 
ing to  the  receiving  substance.  This  modification 
extends  in  such  varying  directions  that  it  is  not  yet 
clear  what  proportion  of  the  ordinarily  accepted  spe- 
cific characters  is  founded  upon  it.  For  the  pres- 
ent, however,  we  recognize  some  three  or  four  spe- 
cies as  occurring  on  our  coast :  Crepidula  fornicata 
(PL  1,  Fig.  15),  the  largest  form,  which  not  rarely 
measures  an  inch  and  a  half,  or  more,  in  length; 
Crepidula  glauca  or  convexa  (Fig.  25),  a  small  humpy 
shell,  whose  presence  appears  to  be  generally  asso- 
ciated with  that  of  the  small  hermit  and  of  Nassa 
obsoleta  ;  and  Crepidula plana  or  unguiformis  (Fig.  26), 
with  a  nearly  flat  shell,  which  is  frequently  found 
within  the  apertures  of  other  shells.  The  slipper- 
limpets  have  the  habit  of  crowding  upon  themselves, 
or  of  ' bunching,'  so  to  speak;  they  may  accord- 
ingly be  picked  up  in  accumulated  masses,  and  this 
is  especially  true  of  the  more  northerly  shores. 
Closely  related  to  the  preceding  is  the  crucible- 


32  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

shell  (Grucibulum  striatum,  PI.  1,  Fig.  32),  which  is, 
however,  rarely  seen  with  us. 

No  true  limpets,  which  are  rock-loving  animals, 
are  known  to  inhabit  the  New  Jersey  coast. 

CLAMS   AND    THEIR    ALLIES  (BIVALVES). 

We  call  these  shells  '  bivalves'  because  they  are 
each  made  up  of  two  pieces  or  valves,  which  lie  on 
either  side  of  the  animal,  and  are  respectively  desig- 
nated the  '  right'  and  the  <  left'  valve.  But  how 
do  we  determine  which 'is  which?  Barring  the 
case  of  the  oysters,  scallops,  and  a  few  of  their 
friends,  the  bivalves  or  headless  mollusks  have  the 
valves  of  the  shell  almost  invariably  equal,  and, 
with  insignificant  exceptions,  the  beaks  of  the 
valves,  known  to  systematists  as  the  l  umbones' 
(singular,  '  umbo'),  are  directed  forward.  Bearing 
this  fact  in  mind, — i.e.,  knowing  which  is  front 
and  which  back, — it  is  an  easy  matter  to  determine 
the  two  sides.  Possibly  you  may  have  stumbled 
across  one  of  the  hard-shell  clams  from  which  the 
animal  has  been  dislodged,  but  which  still  holds 
both  valves  together.  The  valves  in  this  case  will 
be  wide  open,  and  are  pulled  and  held  in  this  posi- 
tion by  an  elastic  ligament  which  runs  along  the 
back  of  the  shell.  Look  on  the  interior  surfaces 
of  the  valves,  and  you  will  observe,  both  in  front 
and  in  the  rear,  a  nearly  round,  impressed  scar,  the 
positions  of  which  correspond  in  the  two  valves. 
Uniting  the  scars  of  the  opposite  valves,  there  were 
in  the  living  condition  of  the  animal  two  stout  mus- 
cular bundles,  whose  contraction,  regulated  by  the 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  33 

will  of  the  animal,  operated  in  the  closing  of  the 
shell.  It  is  the  action  of  these  '  adductor'  muscles 
pulling  together  which  renders  the  opening  of  clams 
such  a  hopeless  and  discouraging  task  to  the  un- 
initiated. But  traverse  the  adductors  with  a  knife- 
blade,  and  the  shell  immediately  opens.  And  so, 
on  the  death  of  the  animal,  when  the  adductors  no 
longer  possess  vitality,  the  valves  of  the  shell  are 
pulled  apart  hy  the  elastic  ligament,  which  always 
suffers  compression  in  the  closed  condition  of  the 
shell.  This  accounts  for  the  apparent  anomaly  that 
dead  shells  are  almost  invariably  open. 

If  a  living  clam  be  carefully  opened,  it  will  be 
found  that  a  delicate  membrane  lines  the  shell  on 
each  side,  reaching  almost  to  the  free  edge  of  the 
shell ;  this  is  the  so-called  '  mantle.'  Immediately 
following  the  mantle  we  meet  on  either  side  with 
a  pair  of  membranous,  leaf-like  organs,  the  gills, 
and  between  the  gills  again,  occupying  the  cen- 
tre, is  the  tough,  fleshy  mass  which  constitutes  the 
*  body'  and  '  foot'  of  the  animal,  the  part  which  is 
so  generously  partaken  of  by  all  lovers  of  the 
shell-fish.  Into  this  fleshy  mass  the  aperture  of 
the  mouth  opens,  and  in  it  is  contained  the  greater 
part  of  the  alimentary  tract.  At  the  back  of  the 
animal  the  mantle-margins  are  united  to  one  an- 
other, and  the  mantle  is  itself  drawn  out  into  a 
double  tube  or  <  siphon,'  through  which  water 
enters  and  leaves  the  interior  of  the  shell.  Not 
all  bivalves  have  these  siphons,  but  where  they 
are  well  developed  and  retractile,  a  peculiar  inflec- 
tion may  be  observed  in  the  impressed  line  which 


34  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

on  the  interior  of  the  shell  connects  the  adductor 
impressions.  This  sinual inflection,  or '  pallial  sinus,' 
is  one  of  the  most  important  characters  to  be  "noted 
in  the  shell,  since  it  serves  to  indicate  a  prominent 
feature  in  the  structure  of  the  animal. 

We  recognize  two  hard-shell  clams  on  our  coast, 
one  having  an  obliquely  oval  shell,  the  quahog 
(Venus  mercenaria),  and  the  other,  with  a  more  nearly 


SURF-CLAM  (Mactra  solidissima). 

triangular  or  equilateral  shell,  the  Mactra  (Mactra 
solidissiina).  The  former  is  the  edible  species,  al- 
though by  some  the  Mactra  is  not  completely  de- 
nied a  hearing.  The  latter,  also  known  as  the 
6  sea-clam'  or  '  surf-clam,'  inhabits  the  sandy  coasts, 
where  it  lies  buried  just  beneath  the  surface ; 
but  it  may  be  occasionally  seen  skipping  about 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  35 

by  means  of  its  active  and  greatly  elongated  foot. 
It  seems  never  to  construct  a  permanent  burrow, 
thus  differing  from  the  '  long-clam'  or  '  sand- 
clam,'  to  be  noticed  hereafter.  The  shells,  which, 
when  full  grown,  measure  as  much  as  six  inches 
in  length  and  four  inches  in  height,  were  formerly 
used  by  the  Indians  as  hoes  in  the  hilling  of  corn. 
Two  smaller  species,  Mactra  ovalis  and  M.  lateralis, 
are  abundant  at  some  tides. 

The  round  clam  or  quahog,  which  is  the  clam  of 
the  New  York  and  Philadelphia  markets,  inhabits 
the  muddy  bottoms  of  bays  more  particularly  from 


QUAHOG  ( Venus  mercenaria). 

low-water  mark  to  about  30  fathoms.  Its  habitat 
extends  along  the  entire  American  coast  from  Cape 
Cod  to  Florida,  but  north  of  Cape  Cod  it  is  of 
rare  occurrence.  The  quahog  is  a  large  and  pow- 
erful shell,  whose  outer  surface  frequently  shows 
signs  of  considerable  erosion.  From  the  interior 


36  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

purple  margin  the  Indians  cut  their  purple  wam- 
pum (shell-money),  the  white  wampum  "being  ob- 
tained from  the  columellar  axis  of  the  pear-conch 
or  winkle  (Fulgur).  The  word  '  quahog'  appears 
to  he  a  corruption  of  the  plural 
Poquahock,  or,  as  it  is  written, 
4  Poquahauges.' 

Careful  observers  of  the 
ocean  beach  will  have  noticed 
from  time  to  time  little  jets  of 
•water  issuing  from  scattered 
holes  in  the  sand;  or  fre- 
quently the  shallow  waters  of 
pools  may  be  observed  twirled 
round  into  eddies  by  suction 
and  ejection  currents  coming 
from  below.  The  author  of  this 
play  of  water  is  the  sand- clam 
(Mya  arenaria),  which  lies 
buried  a  few  inches  below  the 
surface,  whence  it  communi- 
cates with  the  outer  world  by 
means  of  its  extended  siphon. 
Through  this  siphon,  which  is 
in  reality  a  double  tube,  water- 
currents  are  passing  both  in- 
ward and  outward,  bringing 
necessaries  to  the  secluded 

SAND-CLAM  (Mya  arenaria).  ..  p 

creature,  and  carrying  from  it 
the  waste  products.  The  depth  to  which  the  animal 
burrows  will  depend  closely  upon  the  length  of  its 
respiratory  siphon.  Although  it  measures  but  a 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  37 

few  inches  in  our  sand-clam,  in  other  forms  it  con- 
siderably surpasses  a  foot,  and,  indeed,  in  a  species 
from  the  California!!  coast  (Glycimeris  generosd)  it 
reaches  a  full  yard,  with  a  thickness  somewhat  ex- 
ceeding that  of  a  stout  hroom-handle.  The  sand- 
clam,  which  is  abundant  almost  everywhere  in  the 
North  in  the  tidal  zone — estuaries,  muddy  inlets, 
and  sandy  shores — is  a  broadly  distributed  species, 
extending  its  range  eastward  to  the  British  Isles 
and  the  continent  of  Europe.  In  the  New  England 
markets  it  is  a  common  article  of  sale,  but  in  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  its  place  is  almost  entirely 
taken  by  the  hard-shell  clam  or  quahog.  The  In- 
dians appear  to  have  been  very  fond  of  these  clams, 
which  were .  known  to  them  as  Sickishuog.  John 
Wmthrop,  in  a  communication  made  to  the  Royal 
Society  of  England  in  1634,  thus  describes  the 
species :  "  Clams — white.  Their  broth  is  most  ex- 
cellent in  all  intermitting  fevers,  consumption,  etc. 
These  clams  feed  only  on  sand." 

On  the  New  Jersey  coast  the  sand-clam  is  some- 
times called,  after  the  Indian  name,  *  maninose' 
(corrupted  to  '  nannynose'),  and,  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  quahog,  the  '  soft-shell  clam.' 

It  frequently  happens  as  the  result  of  a  storm  that 
large  cakes  of  a  stiff  gray  or  blue  clay,  more  or  less 
firmly  matted  together  by  vegetable  fibres,  and  in 
some  localities  having  a  peaty  aspect,  are  cast  upon 
the  beach.  These  masses  are  the  abiding-place  of 
great  numbers  of  an  interesting  boring  mollusk 
known  to  conchologists  as  Petricola  (PL  2,  Fig.  20), 
the  '  stone-dweller,'  which  has  forced  its  way  in  by 

4 


38  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

a  process  which  has  not  yet  been  clearly  made  out. 
The  animal  is  provided  with  a  double  respiratory 
siphon,  which  can  be  extended  to  a  length  consid- 
erably in  excess  of  that  of  the  shell  itself.  When 
placed  in  a  dish  of  sea-water,  the  animal,  after  it 
has  fully  recovered  from  its  consciousness  of  danger, 
slowly  begins  to  thrust  out  this  respiratory  appa- 
ratus, whose  action  can  now  be  clearly  followed. 
If  there  should  happen  to  be  minute  particles  of 
foreign  matter  in  the  water,  it  will  be  observed  that 
these  are  attracted  in  the  direction  of  the  lower 
division  of  the  siphon,  while  they  are  just  as  posi- 
tively repelled  from  the  upper.  This  indicates  that 
a  current  of  water  sets  in  through  the  lower  or  <  in- 
current'  orifice,  and  that  a  similar  current  passes  out 
at  the  same  time  through  the  upper  or  '  excurrent' 
orifice.  A  perpetual  circulation  is  thus  kept  up 
about  the  body  of  the  animal,  feeding  the  gills,  and 
taking  with  it  a  certain  amount  of  nutriment  neces- 
sary to  the  existence  of  the  animal.  This  arrange- 
ment is  found  in  all  the  siphonated  bivalves. 

Like  other  shell-fish  that  bury  themselves  in  the 
sand  or  mud,  the  Petricola  doubtless  seeks  its  se- 
clusion from  motives  of  self-protection.  By  many 
it  has  been  supposed  that  the  boring  is  accomplished 
by  a  peculiar  revolution  of  the  shell,  during  which 
the  serrated  ridges  on  the  surface  would  act  like  a 
rasp,  wearing  and  tearing  as  the  work  of  excavation 
progressed.  That  this  is  not  likely  to  be  the  true 
method  of  operation  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that 
there  are  a  number  of  true  stone-borers,  which  have 
an  ornamentation  almost  identical  with  that  cover- 


2. 


FIG. 

1.  Solen  ensis. 

2.  Solecurtus  gibba. 

3.  Solenomya  velum. 

4.  Teredo  navalis. 

5.  Solecurtus  divisus. 

6.  Siliqua  costata. 

7.  Anatina  papyracea. 

8.  Cochlodesma  Leana. 

9.  Pandora  trilineata. 

10.  Tellina  tenta. 

11.  "       tenera. 

12.  Teredo  navalis. 

13.  Pallets  of  ship- worm. 

14.  Saxicava  Arctica. 

15.  Corbula  contracta. 

16.  Lyonsia  hyalina. 

17.  18.    Xylotrya  fimbriata. 

19.  Pallets  of  Xylotrya. 

20.  Petricola  pholadiformis. 

21.  22,  23.    Pholas  costata. 


PL,   2. 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  39 

ing  the  shell  of  Petricola  pholadiformis,  and  in  which, 
after  the  completion  of  the  work  of  horing,  the 
projecting  points  on  the  shell  are  perfectly  clear  and 
sharp,  and  not  rubbed  down  as  we  should  naturally 
expect  to  find  them  after  the  hard  work  of  rock- 
abrasion.  Such  a  shell  is  the  Pholas,  of  which  three 
species  are  represented  on  the  New  Jersey  coast. 
The  largest  of  these,  Pholas  costata  (PI.  2,  Figs.  21- 
23),  which  measures  about  six  inches  in  length,  is 
very  generally  represented  only  by  fragments  of  the 
shell,  and  it  is  still  doubtful  whether  it  normally 
inhabits  this  part  of  the  -coast.  It  is  more  properly 
a  species  from  the  South  (although  observed  as 
far  north  as  New  Bedford),  where  it  may  be  found 
at  some  little  distance  beneath  the  surface  in  the 
mud-banks  which  are  exposed  at  low  water.  The 
other  two  species,  Pholas  truncata  and  P.  crispata 
(PI.  3,  Figs.  1, 2),  are  very  much  smaller,  and,  while 
their  shells  are  ribbed  anteriorly,  they  lack  the  full 
series  of  spinose  riblets  which  so  regularly  diversify 
the  shell  of  the  larger  form.  In  the  latter  species 
the  shell 4  gapes'  broadly  at  the  two  ends,  the  pos- 
terior opening  permitting  of  the  extension  of  a  very 
powerful  and  muscular  siphon.  It  is  a  common 
habit  with  Pholas  crispata  to  bore  into  rock,  and 
specimens  of  bored-rock  fragments  in  museums 
are  not  rare.  The  collections  of  the  Academy 
of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia  contain  a  re- 
markable block  of  gneiss  which  is  bored  in  this 
manner.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  process 
of  boring  may  be  entirely  performed  by  the  foot 
taking  up  particles  of  sand  and  rubbing  these 


40  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

against  the  rock  in  concentric  lines.  However  this 
may  be,  it  is  certain  that  the  hole  is  very  evenly 
cut,  and  that  it  is  increased  in  size  in  conformity 
with  the  development  within  the  rock  of  the  animal 
itself. 

A  rather  remarkable  form  of  borer,  which  was 
first  detected  within  the  shells  of  the  oyster  at 
Tottenville,  Staten  Island,  is  the  Diplothyra  Smithti, 
a  very  much  smaller  shell  than  either  of  the  pholads, 
and  perhaps  more  nearly  recalling  the  true  ship- 
worms.  The  latter  (PI.  2,  Figs.  4,  12,  13),  by  rea- 
son of  their  depredations,  are  the  most  interest- 
ing of  the  boring  Mollusca.  They  are  largely  in- 
habitants of  the  tropical  waters,  but  have  in  the 
timber  of  ships  been  introduced  almost  everywhere 
over  the  wide  sea.  The  body  proper  of  this 
singular  creature  is  usually  very  small,  but  through 
the  great  elongation  backward  of  the  siphons  the 
animal  is  made  to  appear  worm-like  (although  it 
has  no  near  relation  to  the  worms),  and  to  attain  a 
length  varying  in  the  different  species  from  one 
to  three  or  even  six  feet.  The  shell  is  compact, 
ridged,  and  open  at  both  ends,  and  only  sufficiently 
large  to  cover  the  anterior  or  body-portion,  the 
animal  thus  appearing  naked.  Beginning  in  very 
early  life,  when  frequently  not  over  two  weeks  old, 
and  when  only  of  about  the  size  of  the  head  of  a  pin, 
the  young  ship-worm  or  Teredo  puts  itself  to  the 
task  of  boring,  selecting  for  its  base  of  operations 
all  forms  of  wood  or  timber  that  may  be  immersed 
in  water,  whether  the  belongings  of  ships,  dikes, 
piles,  or  piers ;  indeed,  one  or  more  forms  even 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 


41 


attack  the  floating  cocoa-nut.  The  rapidly-forming 
burrow  follows  in  a  sinuous  line  the  grain  of  the 
wood,  passing  out  of  the  way  of  knots,  and  con- 
scientiously avoiding  the  burrows  of  confederate 
workers.  In  this  manner  a  piece 
of  wood  is  soon  honey-combed. 
The  entrance  is  made  by  a  minute 
hole,  the  size  of  the  burrow  in- 
creasing with  the  growth  of  the 
animal.  A  lining  of  white  calca- 
reous matter  usually  extends  along 
the  entire  length  of  the  burrow, 
to  the  farther  end  of  which  the 
two  valves  of  the  shell  are  at- 
tached. 

It  is  well  ascertained  in  the  case 
of  the  ship-worm  that  the  burrow 
is  largely,  or  even  principally,  ex- 
cavated by  shell-abrasion,  although 
perhaps  the  exact  process  has  not 
yet  been  clearly  made  out.  Large 
quantities  of  the  wood-dust  are 
frequently  found  within  the  intes- 
tine of  the  animal,  and  it  appears 
not  unlikely  that  some  of  it  is 
intentionally  swallowed,  and  even 
used  for  nourishment.  The  rav- 
ages of  the  ship- worm  may  be  such 
as  to  destroy  within  a  very  short 
time  the  stoutest  timber;  indeed,  it  is  said  that 
piles  that  had  been  driven  only  six  or  seven  weeks 
on  the  Dutch  coast  were  found  at  the  end  of  that 

4* 


WOOD  BORED  BY 
SHIP-WORM. 


42  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

time  to  have  been  completely  eaten  through.  It 
seems  not  unlikely  that  some  of  the  breakages  in 
the  Holland,  dikes  are  to  be  attributed  to  weakness 
caused  by  this  enemy  to  wood.  The  metal  casing 
of  ships'  bottoms  has  pretty  effectually  stopped  all 
attack  in  this  direction,  and  much  the  same  result 
has  been  obtained  from  painting  wood  with  creo- 
sote oil. 

The  best-known  species  of  ship-worm  is  the  Te- 
redo navalis,  which  appears  to  have  been  introduced 
upon  our  coast  from  Europe;  its  calcareous  tube 
measures  as  much  as  two  feet,  or  more,  in  length. 
It  breeds  in  middle  spring,  and  the  eggs  are  said 
to  be  developed  by  millions  from  a  single  individ- 
ual. The  young  are  provided  with  eyes,  which, 
however,  disappear  in  later  life.  Closely  related 
to  this  species  is  the  form  known  as  Xylotrya  fim- 
briata  (PI.  2,  Figs.  17,  18,  19),  which  differs  mainly 
in  the  outline  of  the  minute  stylets  or  *  pallets,' 
which  project  from  the  posterior  portion  of  the 
siphonal  tube. 

Another  form  of  borer,  much  rarer  with  us  than 
in  the  North,  is  the  Saxicava  Arctica  (PI.  2,  Fig. 
14),  a  small  shell  somewhat  resembling  the  sand- 
clam,  which  not  infrequently  attacks  the  softer  lime- 
stones. 

Not  the  least  interesting  of  our  coast  Mollusca  is 
an  individual  which  has  thus  far  escaped  the  clutch 
of  the  epicure,  but  which,  if  delicacy  of  flavor  counts 
for  anything,  is  not  unlikely  to  gain  a  prominent 
position  on  the  table  in  the  near  future.  This  is 
the  razor  or  so-called  razor-fish  (Solen  Americanus, 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  43 

PL  2,  Fig.  1),  whose  long  and  narrow  parallel-sided 
shell  is  familiar  to  almost  every  one  on  the  beach. 
The  clean  pinkish-  or  yellowish-white  flesh,  the 
greater  portion  of  which  forms  a  narrow  cylindrical 
'  foot/  is  even  now  esteemed  a  delicacy  by  many. 
The  animal  may  be  found  at  low-water  mark,  buried 
almost  vertically  in  the  sand,  and  to  a  depth  not 
seldom  of  two  or  three  feet.  Where  thus  deeply 
buried  it  comes  frequently  to  the  surface,  so  that 
it  may  receive  the  necessary  food-supplying  water 
through  its  short  siphonal  tube.  It  has  been  ob- 
served that  the  razor  takes  cognizance  of  passing 
shadows  on  the  water,  as  when  the  hand  is  passed 
over  the  position  occupied  by  the  siphonal  orifices, 
and  this,  too,  when  the  rest  of  the  animal  is  com- 
pletely covered  over.  The  supposition  that  the 
animal  was  by  some  means  enabled  to  see  from  the 
rear  will  to  most  persons  appear  erratic;  never- 
theless, careful  examination  of  the  siphonal  margin 
has  revealed  the  existence  there  of  minute  black 
specks,  which  appear  to  have  the  structure  of  visual 
organs.  Thus  we  are  taught  that  the  special  sense 
organs  need  not  be  situated  in  the  head,  a  condition 
which  also  obtains  with  many  other  forms  of  ani- 
mals. A  second  species,  allied  to  the  preceding,  is 
the  green  razor  (Solen  viridis),  which  rarely  attains  a 
length  much  exceeding  two  inches,  while  the  for- 
mer not  infrequently  measures  full  six  inches. 
Several  other  species  of  bivalves  have  more  or  less 
the  elongated  form  of  the  razor,  but  in  none  does 
the  shell  attain  the  proportional  length  seen  in  that 
species.  Eye-specks,  of  an  orange  color,  are  pres- 


44  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

ent  in  the  siphonal  region  of  Solecurtus  gibbus,  a 
common  mud-burrower  of  the  ocean  front  (PL  2, 
Fig.  2). 

Before  finally  parting  from  our  siphonated  friends 
of  the  coast  it  may  be  well  to  turn  our  attention  for 
a  moment  to  a  number  of  small  and  insignificant- 
looking  shells,  which  are  at  times  fairly  abundant, 
their  fragments,  indeed,  frequently  making  up  much 
of  the  long  white  lines  which  define  the  boundaries 
of  the  surf.  These  are  the  tellens  and  their  allies 
the  wedge-shells  (Donax,  PL  3,  Fig.  13).  In  both  of 
these  groups,  as  a  distinguishing  peculiarity,  the 
beak  of  the  shell  is  placed  nearer  the  posterior 
margin  than  the  anterior,  thus  making  the  front  of 
the  animal  very  long  in  comparison  with  the  back. 
In  by  far  the  greater  number  of  the  bivalve  shell- 
fish the  reverse  is  the  case ;  in  a  few,  again,  the  two 
sides  are  nearly  equal.  The  shells  of  Tellina  (PL 
2,  Figs.  10, 11)  may  be  recognized  by  their  rounded 
outlines,  the  position  of  the  beaks,  and  the  minute 
teeth  by  which  the  valves  hinge.  In  the  wedge- 
shells,  which,  though  small,  are  conspicuous  by  their 
beautiful  coloring,  the  shell  is  clearly  wedge-shaped, 
with  nearly  direct  outlines. 

One  of  the  rarer  shells  of  the  coast,  although  ex- 
tending in  its  range  from  Maine  to  Florida,  is  the 
delicate  Pandora  (PL  2,  Fig.  9),  which  can  be  almost 
immediately  recognized  by  the  flatness  of  its  beau- 
tifully-arched valves,  and  their  pearly  structure. 
Observe  that  one  valve  is  considerably  smaller  than 
the  other. 


3. 


FIG. 

1.  Pholas  truncata. 

2.  "       crispata. 

3.  Cardium  Mortoni. 

4.  Cytherea  convexa 

5.  Astarte  castanea. 

6.  Lucina  divaricata. 

7.  Cardita  borealis. 

8.  Anomia  ephippium. 

9.  Gouldia  mactracea. 

10.  Nucuhi  proxima. 

11.  Yoldia  limatula. 

12.  Area  transversa. 

13.  Donax  fossor. 

14.  Tellina  tenera 

15.  Area  pexata. 

16.  "     ponderosa. 


PL.    3. 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  45 

OYSTERS,    SCALLOPS,    MUSCLES,    AND    ARKS. 

The  oyster  is  so  familiar  to  everybody  that  it 
scarcely  needs  description.  Still,  there  are  a  num- 
ber of  points  connected  with  its  structure  and  his- 
tory which  may  not  be  generally  known,  and  may 
consequently  be  touched  upon  with  advantage.  In 
the  first  place,  let  it  be  said  that  there  are  two  gen- 
erally recognized  species  or  varieties  on  our  coast, 
— one  known  as  the  Virginia  oyster,  of  an  elongated 
form,  and  the  other,  deeply  scalloped,  the  Northern 
oyster  (Ostrea  borealis).  But  the  shell  of  the  oyster 
varies  so  greatly,  depending  for  its  form  so  much 
upon  the  shape  of  the  object  upon  which  it  immov- 
ably attaches  itself  in  later  life,  that  it  becomes  a 
matter  of  great  difficulty  to  determine  the  proper 
limits  of  specific  variation ;  and,  indeed,  as  far  as 
the  two  forms  above  noted  are  concerned,  it  is  very 
doubtful  if  they  do  not  in  reality  belong  to  a  single 
species.  In  both,  as  in  nearly  all  oysters,  the  left 
valve  is  the  larger  of  the  two,  and  it  is  upon  this 
that  the  animal  rests.  The  two  are  brought  to- 
gether by  means  of  a  single  powerful  muscle  (ad- 
ductor), whose  attachment  to  the  shell  leaves  the 
dark  sub-central  impression  which  is  frequently 
called  the  l  heart.' 

Oysters  are  marine  in  habit,  but  they  seem  able 
to  endure  a  certain  amount  of  exposure  to  fresh 
water,  as  in  the  mouths  of  estuaries  and  bays, 
which  constitute  their  chief  abiding-place.  The 
i  banks'  or  '  reefs'  rise  to  within  a  few  feet  of  the 
surface,  and  in  many  regions  are  even  exposed 


46  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

dry  during  low-water.  One  or  more  forms  grow 
on  the  roots  of  trees,  such  as  the  mangrove,  on 
which  they  remain  exposed  for  hours  at  a  time 
above  water.  The  great  thickness  of  the  shell  in 
many  individuals  indicates  a  long  life-period  for 
the  animal,  which  has  been  estimated  by  some,  but 
probably  without  sufficient  basis,  to  be  as  much  as 
a  hundred  years.  The  different  layers  of  the  shell 
indicate  distinct  periods  of  rest  in  its  develop- 
ment, but  at  what  regular  (if  regular)  intervals 
these  periods  follow  one  another  is  still  an  open 
question.  In  the  east-coast  oysters,  whose  most 
extensive  head-quarters  appear  to  be  Chesapeake 
Bay,  the  shell  rarely  attains  a  greater  length  than 
one  foot  or  15  inches ;  but  foreign  and  fossil  species 
are  known  which  far  exceed  these  dimensions. 
Thus,  a  species  from  the  Middle  Tertiary  deposits 
of  Europe  (Ostrea  crassissima)  measures  nearly  or 
fully  two  feet  in  length ;  the  Ostrea  Titan,  from  a 
somewhat  later  deposit  in  California,  measures  six 
inches  through  the  thickness  of  the  two  valves, 
while  a  recent  species  (0.  Talienwanensis),  from  the 
Bay  of  Taichou,  Japan,  grows  to  a  length  of  even 
three  feet.  Careful  investigation  has  shown  that 
the  American  oyster  will  grow  to  a  length  of 
nearly  four  inches  in  about  two  years,  and  it  is 
conjectured  from  this  that  in  some  four  years  after 
its  escape  from  the  egg  the  animal  is  approximately 
adult  and  marketable. 

Oysters  appear  to  thrive  best  in  estuarine  coves 
and  inlets  where  the  bottom  is  not  liable  to  shift 
to  any  great  extent,  and  where  the  depth  of  water 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  47 

does  not  much  exceed  18  or  20  fathoms.  Their 
food  consists  principally  of  minute  larvae,  infusori- 
ans,  and  the  lowly-organized  plants  known  as  Di- 
atoms, but  they  do  not  refuse  either  crustaceans 
or  mollusks,  provided  these  be  small  enough,  and 
even  the  inorganic  earths  form  part  of  their  nutri- 
tive material.  In  a  general  way  they  might  be  said 
to  be  omnivorous.  The  principal  spawning  season 
about  the  Chesapeake  extends  through  the  months  of 
June  and  July,  but  some  individuals  may  be  found 
with  spawn  throughout  almost  the  entire  year.  The 
eggs,  which  have  been  estimated  to  be  contained  to 
the  extent  of  100,000,000  in  a  single  large  female, 
measure  about  the  one-five-hundredth  of  an  inch  in 
diameter,  and  give  birth  to  active  little  creatures, 
the  fry,  which  are  early  provided  with  a  rudimen- 
tary shell.  It  appears  that  under  favorable  circum- 
stances the  fry  becomes  attached  within  a  day  after 
its  liberation ;  in  this  condition  the  oyster  young  is 
known  as  *  spat.'  Spawning  begins  at  about  the 
age  of  one  year.  The  notion  that  oysters  are  harm- 
ful during  all  but  the  so-called  seasonable  months 
has  nothing  to  support  it  beyond  the  fact  that  in 
the  warmer  months  the  flesh  loses  in  general  deli- 
cacy and  flavor. 

A  near  ally  of  the  oyster  is  an  irregular  lustrous 
shell,  about  one  inch  in  diameter,  which  more  gen- 
erally occurs  black  or  bluish-black  on  our  coast,  and 
is  known  to  conchologists  as  Anomia  (PI.  3,  Fig. 
8).  It  is  rarely  found  with  both  valves  attached, 
the  valve  commonly  found  being  the  upper  convex 


48  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

one.  The  lower  valve  is  nearly  flat,  and  contains  a 
deep  fissure  or  hole  at  one  extremity  through  which 
the  animal  passes  a  bundle  of  horny  threads — the 
byssus — for  the  purposes  of  attachment.  Our  Ano- 
mia  appears  to  be  undistinguishable  from  the  com- 
mon European  species  (Anomia  ephippium),  and  this 
may  also  be  the  case  with  some  of  the  varieties  of 
the  oyster  just  described. 

He  who  has  but  once  trod  the  Jersey  sands  knows 
the  scallop,  whose  radiately-ribbed  and  symmetri- 
cally-formed shell  is  one  of  the  commonest  objects 
on  the  beach.  Indeed,  during  recent  years  it  has 
been  steadily  growing  in  favor  as  an  article  of  food ; 
and  why  it  should  be  less  'palatable  than  its  first 
cousin,  the  oyster,  is  a  little  difficult  to  say.  The 
scallop,  so  called  from  the  service  to  which  the  shell 
was  formerly  put  in  '  scalloping'  oysters,  inhabits 
the  sub-tidal  zone  to  a  depth  of  some  250  feet  or 
more,  frequently  forming  by  its  aggregations  vast 
banks.  The  animal  rests  on  its  right  valve,  which 
is  in  almost  all  cases  more  convex  than  its  fellow. 
Beneath,  or  at  the  base  of,  the  anterior  '  ear'  of  this 
valve  will  be  found  a  fairly  profound  notch,  which 
marks  the  passage  of  the  byssal  fibres  secreted  by 
the  foot.  Considerable  interest  attaches  to  this 
animal  as  being  the  first  among  the  bivalve  Mol- 
lusca  in  which,  it  was  claimed,  the  presence  of 
visual  organs  had  been  detected.  If  the  margin 
of  the  mantle  be  examined  it  will  be  found  to  be 
double,  the  inner  piece  hanging  like  a  finely-fringed 
curtain.  Along  its  base  are  scattered  a  number  of 
small  black  or  blue  specks,  to  which,  for  apparently 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF   THE  COAST.  49 

good  reasons,  the  function  of  eyes  has  been  ascribed. 
Possibly,  however,  they  may  be  only  phosphorescent 
or  illuminating  organs,  without  in  themselves  being 
capable  of  receiving  images. 


SCALLOP  (Pecten  irradians). 

The  scallop  of  the  New  Jersey  coast  is  the 
Pecten  irradians,  a  shell  measuring  some  three 
inches  each  way,  and  crossed  by  about  twenty 
elevated  ribs.  On  account  of  its  varied  and  beau- 
tiful coloring,  ranging  from  white  through  shades 
of  orange,  brown,  red,  and  purple,  it  is  eagerly 
sought  after  for  mantel-ornamentation,  the  making  of 
card-holders,  pincushions,  etc.  A  much  larger  and 
more  northerly  species  (Pecten  Magellanicus),  which 
is  almost  entirely  wanting  on  the  sands,  has  been 
dredged  in  abundance  in  Raritan  Bay  and  else- 
d  5 


50  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

where.  The  scallop,  unlike  the  oyster,  is  a  fairly 
active  creature,  moving  about  with  rapidity  by 
means  of  its  finger-shaped  foot.  In  the  young 
condition  the  animal  swims  freely  through,  and  on 
the  surface  of,  the  water,  propulsion  being  effected 
mainly  by  the  sudden  opening  and  closing  of  the 
valves.  A  scallop  placed  high  and  dry  will  at  slow 
intervals  open  its  shell,  and  then  suddenly  close  it 
with  a  peculiar  thud,  a  performance  that  is  re- 
peated until  the  animal  is  well  nigh  dry.  The  part 
of  the  scallop  that  is  used  for  food  is  the  thick 
white  muscle  which  holds  the  two  valves  of  the 
shell  together. 

A  few  words  about  arks  and  their  allies.  These 
can  be  immediately  recognized  by  the  large  num- 
ber of  teeth  on  the  hinge-line,  by  means  of  which 
the  two  valves  are  kept  firmly  interlocked.  In  the 
arks  proper  (PI.  3,  Figs.  12,  15,  17)  these  minute 
comb-like  teeth  are  arranged  in  a  continuous  linear 
series,  but  in  the  pearl-lined  Nucula  (Figs.  10,  16) 
and  in  Yoldia  (Fig.  11)  the  series  is  interrupted, 
and  broken  in  outline.  In  the  arks  the  shell,  when 
not  badly  worn,  is  coated  with  a  heavy  epidermis, 
usually  of  a  dark  brown  color.  Many  of  the  species 
spin  a  stout  byssus,  which  serves  as  an  anchor- 
line  of  attachment  to  the  surfaces  of  stones, 
rocks,  etc.  The  shells  of  three  species  are  found 
on  our  coast,  each  well  defined  by  peculiarities  in 
their  outline.  The  rounded  form  (Area  pexata, 
PI.  3,  Fig.  15),  which  differs  from  most  arks  in 
having  a  minimum  of  space  between  the  two  valves, 
is  further  distinguished  by  the  possession  of  red 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  51 

blood;    hence  it  has  acquired  the  name  of  bloody 
clam. 

A  visit  to  the  muscle-shoals,  which  are  to  be 
found  on  the  borders  of  salt  marshes,  or  where 
along  inlets  the  muddy  bottom  is  exposed  for  some 
time  during  low  water,  cannot  but  prove  interest- 
ing and  instructive.  Two  forms  of  muscle  will 
very  generally  be  found  here,  aggregated  in  large 
numbers  and  clusters.  One  of  these,  pointed  and 
wedge-shaped  in  outline,  with  a  dark  blue  epi- 
dermis and  a  purplish  or  horn-colored  shell,  is  the 
edible  muscle  (Mytilus  edulis),  a  common  form  of 
both  the  American  and 
European  coasts,  and  per- 
haps the  most  widely  dis- 
tributed of.  all  known 
Mollusca.  It  occurs  in 
great  clusters,  matted  to-  EDIBLE  MUSCLE. 

gether  by  byssus,  which  also  attaches  it  to  stones, 
piles,  wrecks,  and  floating  bodies  of  all  sorts. 
Although  more  commonly  an  inhabitant  of  the 
tidal  zone,  it  is  also  found  in  depths  ranging  to  300 
feet  or  more.  This  species  has  been  put  to  little 
economical  use  in  this  country — although  by  many 
considered  to  excel  in  flavor  the  ordinary  clam 
— but  in  various  parts  of  Northern  Europe  it  is 
esteemed  a  very  desirable  article  of  food.  The 
annual  muscle-consumption  in  the  markets  of 
Edinburgh  and  Leith  is  estimated  at  400  bushels 
(about  400,000  muscles).  In  some  of  the  German 
waters  the  muscle-fishery  is  conducted  by  placing 
boughs  of  trees  in  the  shallows  inhabited  by  the 


52  THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST. 

mollusk,  and  allowing  the  shells  to  accumulate  on 
these  boughs  for  a  period  of  several  years.  They 
are  then  raised,  the  quantity  sold  hy  weight,  and 
distributed  over  the  interior  of  the  country. 

The  muscle  when  first  hatched  is  an  active 
free-swimming  little  creature,  which  attaches  itself 
when  no  larger  than  the  head  of  a  pin.  But  much 
later  in  life  it  still  possesses  the  power  of  disen- 
gaging the  attaching  byssus,  and  securing  a  new 
anchorage  when  such  is  needed.  By  alternately 
passing  forward  its  delicate  threads,  the  animal 
pulls  itself  along  to  a  selected  locality,  much  in 
the  manner  that  is  adopted  by  many  spiders  in 
securing  their  prey. 

Eeadily  distinguished  from  the  edible  muscle  by 
its  rounded  anterior  outline  and  the  plications  or 


HORSE-MUSCLE. 

- 

radiating  lines  extending  down  the  sides  of  the 
shell,  is  the  so-called  horse-muscle  (Modiola  plica- 
tula),  like  the  former  an  inhabitant  of  the  shallows 
about  tide-water.  Here,  in  the  somewhat  peaty 
soil,  they  are  frequently  found  burrowing  in  vast 
numbers,  so  closely  packed  together  as  to  form  a 
true  stratum.  The  shells  are  often  much  eroded 


THE  SHELL-FISH  OF  THE  COAST.  53 

over  the  beaks,  and  in  acidulated  waters  sometimes 
nests  of  the  epidermis  alone  will  he  found,  the 
limy  parts  having  heen  completely  dissolved  away. 
This  species  enters  freely  into  brackish  water. 
A  second  species,  smooth,  and  of  much  larger  size, 
measuring  as  much  as  six  inches  in  length,  is  the 
Modiola  modiolus,  a  common  form  of  moderately 
deep  northern  waters. 


II. 

SQUIRTS,    POLYPS,    AND    JELLY-FISHES. 

SOME  of  the  pleasant  minutes  whiled  away  in  the 
water  can  be  advantageously  put  to  collecting,  and 
the  bather  who  loiters  among  the  grass-grown  piles 
that  here  and  there  lift  their  hoary  heads  out  of  the 
water,  or  examines  the  wreck  of  some  unfortunate 
merchantman,  cannot  fail  to  meet  with  a  number 
of  curious  and  interesting  objects,  which  otherwise 
might  have  readily  passed  among  the  unknowables 
of  the  sea-border.  One  or  more  forms  of  sea- 
urchins  or  t  sea-eggs,'  various  squirts,  polyps,  and 
corallines,  and  the  goose  barnacle,  find  here  a  con- 
genial home,  which  already  in  olden  time  had 
been  discovered  and  made  useful  by  the  edible 
muscle.  Unfortunately,  almost  the  entire  New 
Jersey  coast  is  destitute  of  real  rock,  and  conse- 
quently lacks  those  cool  rock-bound  retreats  which 
on  the  New  England  shores  delight  the  star-fish  and 
the  sea-anemone.  This  deficiency  is  in  a  measure 
made  good  by  the  enclosed  areas  of  piers  and 
wharves,  which  offer  a  safe  harbor  to  a  number  of 
forms  which,  in  the  matter  of  home  comforts,  could 
obtain  but  little  encouragement  from  the  arid  sands. 

Among  these,  perhaps  the  first  to  attract  our 
attention  will  be  a  small  rounded  yellowish  body,  not 
much  more  than  a  half-inch  across,  which  is  found 

54 


SQUIRTS,  POLYPS,  AND  JELLY-FISHES.         55 


adhering  to  the  piles.  Press  gently  with  the  finger — 
the  animal  contracts,%and  while  contracting  throws 
out  a  double  jet  of  water  from  two  chimney-pot  open- 
ings situated  on  its  surface.  The  animal  is  one  of  our 
commoner  forms  of  sea-squirts,  known  to  naturalists 
as  Molgula  Manhattensis.  Through  its  pel- 
lucid outer  tunic  the  color  of  the  viscera 
can  be  indistinctly  seen.  This  species 
also  frequently  attaches  itself  to  floating 
sea-weed,  and  is  then  drifted  in  to  shore  ; 
or  it  may  be  found  attached  to  the  nod- 
ding fronds  which  battle  with  the  waves. 

The  sea-squirts  are  in  many  ways  interesting 
animals,  especially  since  it  has  been  shown  that  in 
their  young  condition  they  present  many  points 
of  resemblance  to  the  vertebrate  or  backboned 
animals.  Thus,  the  larva  of  most  species  has  a  long 
tail,  a  rudimentary  spinal  column,  and  a  long  nerve- 
tract,  terminating  in  a  brain,  which  occupies  the 
same  relative  position  to  the  spinal  column  that  the 
same  tract  does  in  the  higher  animals.  Indeed,  so 
similar  is  the  larva  of 
certain  forms  to  a  tadpole 
as  to  carry  with  it  a  con- 
viction that  the  two  can- 
not be  very  far  removed 
from  each  other.  But  in  the  mature  form  of 
nearly  all  squirts  the  tail  becomes  absorbed,  and 
with  it  disappears  what  there  was  to  represent  the 
spinal  column,  and  also  much  of  the  nerve  appa- 
ratus— a  case  of  true  degeneration.  One  of  the 
chimney  pot  openings  on  Molgula  conducts  into 


LARVA  OF  TUNICATE. 


56          SQUIRTS,    POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES. 

a  peculiar  sieve-like  chamber — whose  walls  are 
made  up  of  delicate  vessels — into  which  food  parti- 
cles are  carried,  and  through  which  the  admitted 
water  passes  into  a  second  chamber, 
which  also  receives  the  alimentary 
canal.  From  this  second  chamber 
the  water,  which  bathes  the  blood- 
vessels forming  the  meshes  of  the 
sieve-like  respiratory  sac,  is  expelled 
through  the  second  chimney-pot 
opening,  and  thus  a  constant  circu- 

STRUCTTJRE  OF  A  TUNI-  n    , .          .      ^  A  111 

CATE.  M,  mouth  ;s,  lation  is  kept  up.     A  remarkable 
respiratory  sac ;  A,  fac£  connected  with  the  circulation 

atrial  chamber.  .  . 

of  this  animal  is  that  the  heart, 
which  lies  near  the  base  of  the  respiratory  sac,  after 
beating  a  short  time  suddenly  stops,  and  that  with 
each  renewal  of  action  the  direction  of  the  blood- 
current  is  reversed.  From  the  peculiar  external 
tunic  which  encases  the  animal,  the  group  to  which 
the  squirt  belongs  has  been  designated  the  Tuni- 
cata. 

A  considerably  larger  form  than  Molgula  is  that 
which  has  received  from  fishermen  the  name  of 
'  sea-peach'  (Cynthia),  in  allusion  to  the  similarity 
in  form  and  coloring  existing  between  it  and  the 
peach.  Other  species  of  nearly  identical,  structure 
and  habit  are  the  '  sea-pears'  (Bolteiiia),  which  are 
supported  on  long  slender  stalks,  measuring  as 
much  as  a  foot  or  more  in  length.  These  are  almost 
invariably  covered  with  foreign  associations  of  plant 
and  animal  matter,  presenting  a  coarse  and  untidy 
appearance. 


SQUIRTS,    POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES.         57 


In  the  tangle  of  eel-grass  which  here  and  there 
shows  itself  you  may  have  had  occasion  to  notice 
that  many  of  the  blades  are  encased 
in  a  gelatinous  or  slimy  substance, 
whose  surface  exhibits  beautiful 
stellate  impressions  or  markings. 
The  whole  encrusting  mass  is  a 
compound  tunicate  or  ascidian,  the 
rays  of  the  different  stars  being  the 
individuals  that  make  up  the  colony. 
The  sharp  eye,  or,  still  better,  a 
magnifier,  will  detect  in  eadh  ray  a 
minute  speck,  which  corresponds  to 
the  incurrent  opening  in  the  com- 
mon sea-squirts,  and  through  which 
the  water  passes  in  the  ordinary 
fashion.  In  the  centre  of  the  star 
is  a  second  speck,  which  is  the 
common  excurrent  aperture  for  the 
different  individuals  of  the  group. 
Although  much  reduced  in  size, 
this  compound  tunicate,  known  as 
Botryllus,  is  constructed  on  the 
same  general  plan  as  the  larger 
forms  above  described.  In  color  it  varies  con- 
siderably, but  generally  it  is  of  a  livid  green  or 
a  slimy  white.  Another  interesting  form  which 
can  be  sometimes  found  in  the  grass  occurs  in 
more  or  less  globular  or  flattened  jelly-like  masses, 
ranging  in  size  from  an  orange  to  a  big  cake, 
and  having  a  color  much  like  that  of  boiled  salt 
pork,  whence  the  name  '  sea-pork/  The  stellate 


BOLTENIA. 


58         SQUIRTS,   POLYPS,  AND  JELLY-FISHES. 

markings  are  here  similar  to  those  seen  on  Bo- 
tryllus. 

There  are  a  number  of  free-swimming  or  pelagic 
tunicates,  some  of  which  approach  our  coast.  One 
of  the  commonest  of  these  is  Salpa  spinosa,  whose 


BOTRYLLUS.  '  SEA-PORK'  (Amorcecium). 

compound  chains,  measuring  as  much  as  a  foot  in 
length,  of  perfectly  transparent  individuals,  some- 
times cover  the  sea  over  a  vast  expanse.  Another, 
the  Pyrosoma,  a  much  rarer  form  in  this  region,  is 
highly  phosphorescent,  and  lays  just  claim  to  being 
considered  one  of  the  lamps  of  the  sea. 

POLYPS. 

The  same  unsightly  sticks  of  timber  that  offer 
refuge  to  the  squirts  will  probably  also  be  found 
to  harbor  quantities  of  the  delicate  feathery  tufts 
which  are  almost  everywhere  scattered  over  the 
beach,  and  which  in  the  popular  mind  are  associ- 
ated in  structure  with  the  '  sea-weed,'  a  term  that 
has  much  to  answer  for  in  receiving  under  its  wing 
a  multitude  of  objects  that  do  not  belong  there. 
These  feathery  tufts,  which  are  familiar  to  many 


SQUIRTS,   POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES.         59 

under  the  name  of  sea-fir,  sea-moss,  or  Sertularia 
(PL  4,  Figs.  7,  10),  are,  indeed,  far  removed  from 
plants,  and  even  far  above  the 
lowest  forms  of  animal  life. 
To  those  who  are  acquainted 
with  the  little  polyp  of  our 
fresh-water  streams  and  ponds, 
the  hydra,  it  is  but  necessary 

to  Say  that  the  Sea-fir  is  prac-        POLYP  OF  SERTULARIA, 

tically  only  a  compound  colony 
of  this  animal,  which  has  become  covered  over  by,  or 
encased  in,  a  horny  sheath.  Cast  your  eye  over  a 
single  twig  of  the  Sertularian,  and  note  the  minute 
scale-like  bracts  which  run  off  at  an  acute  angle 
with  it.  These,  when  magnified,  are  seen  to  be 
hollow  sheaths  or  cups  (thecae),  each  of  which, 
during  the  life  of  the  animal,  contained  a  minute 
polyp,  to  all  intents  and  purposes  identical  with 
the  hydra.  The  different  polyps  were  united 
with  one  another  by  means  of  a  common  stalk 
which  occupied  the  centre  of  the  connecting  axis 
or  twig.  But  what  is  the  polyp  itself?  A  hollow 
little  body,  with  an  opening  at  one  end,  the  mouth, 
and  a  circle  of  hollow  arms  or  tentacles,  an  out- 
growth of  the  body-cavity  itself,  surrounding  the 
mouth.  It  might  be  likened  to  a  glove  closed  at 
the  bottom,  and  with  a  single  rupture  (correspond- 
ing to  the  rnouth  of  the  polyp)  at  the  base  of  one 
of  the  fingers.  This  colony  has  become  compound 
through  repeated  budding,  the  individual  polyps 
after  they  have  once  budded  out  contributing  by 
way  of  nourishment  to  the  welfare  of  the  commu- 


(JO         SQUIRTS,    POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES. 

nity  at  large.  Each  little  active  polyp  is  situated  in 
its  own  chitinous  cup,  the  different  cups  being  ar- 
ranged in  a  double  series  along  the  connecting  axis. 
Between  these  cups,  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year, 
may  be  observed  a  number  of  larger  and  somewhat 
urn-shaped  bodies,  the  gonothecae,  from  buds  con- 
tained in  which  the  eggs  necessary  for  the  perpetu- 
ation of  the  species  are  developed.  These  liberate 
minute  ciliated  bodies,  known  as  '  planulse/  which, 
after  enjoying  a  short  independent  existence  of  their 
own,  attach  themselves,  and  grow  up  into  the  grand- 
parental  form. 

The  commoner  of  the  two  forms  of  sea-fir  found 
on  our  coast  is  the  silver  sea-fir  (Sertularia  argentea, 
PL  4,  Fig.  7),  so  named  from  the  general  white- 
ness of  the  fronds,  and  found  from  low-water 
mark  to  a  depth  of  100  fathoms  or  more.  It  is 
the  common  <  sea-moss'  that  is  so  extensively  dis- 
played in  the  shops  along  the  sea-shore,  and  used 
by  florists  for  decorative  purposes.  A  smaller  spe- 
cies, the  dwarf  sea-fir  (Sertularia  pumila,  Fig.  10), 
attaches  itself  to  the  ordinary  brown  rockweed  or 
fucus,  also  to  pebbles,  and  to  various  dead  ana 
living  shells. 

Growing  in  bunches  much  like  the  sea-firs,  but  ap- 
pearing thinned  out  by  reason  of  the  distance  of  the 
polyps  from  one  another,  is  the  form  known  as  Pen- 
naria  (PI.  4,  Figs.  3,  12),  whose  fronds  can  be  easily 
distinguished  by  the  black  color  of  the  branches. 
The  polyps  which  terminate  the  branches  are  ex- 
ceedingly minute,  of  a  bright  red  color,  and  fur- 
nished with  three  circles  of  tentacles.  In  probably 


PLATE    4. 


FIG. 

1.  Aurelia  flavidula. 

2.  Strobila  of  Aurelia. 

3.  Pennaria  tiarella. 

4.  Early  strobila  stage  of  Aurelia. 

5.  Parypha  crocea. 

6.  Dactylometra  quinquecirra. 

7.  Sertularia  argentea. 

8.  Young  Aurelia. 

9.  Velella  mutica. 

10.  Sertularia  pumila. 

11.  Obelia  oommissuralis  (highly  magnified). 

12.  Hydroid  of  Pennaria        "  " 

13.  Tubularia  indivisa. 


PL.   4. 


SqUIRTS,   POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES.         61 

all  the  animals  of  the  class  we  are  now  considering 
the  extremities  of  the  tentacles  are  provided  with 
peculiar  '  nettle-cells/  which  by  a  special  arrange- 
ment can  discharge  from  their  interiors  small  barbed 
bodies  or  styles  useful  as  weapons  of  both  offence 
and  defence.  In  Pennaria  nettle-cells  similar  to 
those  of  the  tentacles  are  also  contained  in  the 
axis  of  the  body,  but  what  their  function  is  in 
this  position  remains  untold. 

Many  of  the  wrecks  that  appear  on  our  coast 
bring  to  us  bunches  of  slender  hollojv  tubes,  meas- 
uring as  much  as  three  or  four  inches  in  height,  in 
each  of  which  lived  at  one  time  a  delicate  polyp. 
Possibly  your  cluster  is  still  alive,  in  which  case 
many  of  the  tiny  creatures  will  be  seen  expanded 
at  the  summits  of  the  tubes,  their  double  circle  of 
tentacles  spread  out  in  the  form  of  a  double  coronet 
(PL  4,  Fig.  13).  Hanging  from  some  of  these, 
like  bunches  of  grapes,  are  the  reproductive  buds, 
which  ultimately  detach  themselves  and,  medusa- 
like,  swim  about  in  the  open  sea.  It  is  not  gener- 
ally known  that  a  large  number  of  ordinary  jelly- 
pads  or  jelly-fishes,  whose  graceful  movements  on 
the  oceanic  surface  have  from  time  immemorial 
challenged  the  admiration  of  the  intelligent  ob- 
server, are  the  products  of  tiny  fixed  colonies  such 
as  we  have  been  considering.  The  discovery  of 
this  fact — of  the  dual  existence  led  by  these  lower 
organisms — is  one  of  the  most  surprising  in  the 
entire  range  of  zoological  investigation,  and  one 
that  cannot  but  carry  with  it  an  impressive  lesson 
of  the  wonderful  resources  of  the  world  of  nature. 

6 


62         SQU1IMS,   POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES. 

The  delicate  tubes  which  in  Tubularia  ensheathe' 
the  elongated  body- stalk  are  in  a  number  of  forms 
expanded  at  their  extremities  into  a  cup  or  bell 
for  the  reception  of  the  body  of  the  animal  itself. 
These  are  the  bell-polyps,  or  campanularians,  which 
grow  usually  in  shrubby  clusters,  some  so  small  as 
readily  to  elude  observation,  others  attaining  sev- 
eral inches  in  length.  I  am  not  sure  that  the  bell- 
polyp  proper  (Campanularia)  has  ever  been  officially 
reported  from  our  coast,  but  if  not  yet  noticed  it 
will  almost  surely  be  found  in  the  near  future,  and 
it  can  but  afford  pleasure  to  make  a  sharp  search 
after  it.  Examine  the  piles,  the  stones,  and  the 
sea-weeds,  and  let  not  even  the  grass-covered  shells 
escape  you.  Its  near  ally,  the  Obelia  commissuralis 
(PI.  4,  Fig.  11),  has  already  secreted  itself  among 
the  time-worn  timbers  of  ancient  wrecks,  where  it 
hangs  in  bunchy  clusters  three  inches  or  more  in 
length.  It  is  also  found  attached  to  stones  and 
sea-weeds,  giving  birth  at  certain  seasons  to  deli- 
cate free-swimming  medusae,  which  may  be  recog- 
nized by  their  sixteen  tentacles. 

A  second  species  of  Obelia  (0.  geLatinosd),  differ- 
ing from  the  preceding  in  its  compoundly  united 
stems,  also  finds  a  favored  home  among  the  piles, 
although  it  is  not  infrequently  found  growing  from 
the  surfaces  of  oyster-shells.  One  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  abundant  of  the  pile-inhabiting  polyps 
or  hydroids,  especially  where  the  water  is  in  a  meas- 
ure brackish,  is  the  Parypha  crocea  (PI.  4,  Fig.  5), 
which  "  forms  large  clusters  of  branching  stems, 
often  six  inches  or  more  in  height,  each  of  which 


SQUIRTS,   POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES.         63 

is  surmounted  by  a  beautiful,  flower-like,  drooping 
head  of  a  pink  or  bright  red  color.  These  heads  are 
often  broken  off,  or  even  voluntarily  cast  off,  when 
the  animals  are  unhealthy,  but  new  ones  are  soon 
reproduced,  and  therefore  this  does  not  seem  to  be 
a  very  serious  accident,  though  certainly  a  very  in- 
convenient one,  for  the  mouth,  stomach,  tentacles, 
and  most  other  organs  are  all  lost  when  these 
heads  drop  off"  (Yerrill).  As  in  Tubularia,  the  re- 
productive buds  hang  down  in  drooping  (red)  grape- 
like  clusters,  but  they  do  not  develop  into  free 
medusae. 

JELLY-PADS    AND    JELLY-FISHES. 

The  favored   few  among   the  '  dwellers   by  the 
sea'  to  whom  a  bright  and  warm  summer's  day  is 
something    more    than    a   source   of   unmitigated 
discomfort    and    complaint    cannot   easily   pass    a 
more  delightful  hour  than  by  navigating  the  quiet 
waters  in  search  of  medusae.    These  exquisite  creat- 
ures, for  all  the  world  like  water- 
bubbles,  will  almost  surely  be  out 
in   greater   or  less  number;   but 
some  of  them  are  so  minute,  al- 
most microscopic,  others  so  trans- 
parent, that,  unless  the  sea  is  ac- 
tually covered  by  them,  a  sharp  MEDUSA. 
watch  must  be  kept,  or  else  they 
will  escape  us.    A  glass  jar  will  be  of  service  in  a  trip 
of  this  kind,  as  through  its  aid  a  rapprochement  may 
be  effected  between  us  and  the  tiny  creatures  whose 
habits  we  wish  to  study.     Some  appear  nearly  tor- 
pid on  the  surface,  dragging  their  tentacles  wearily 


64         SqUIRTS,   POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES. 

after  them  ;  others,  again,  are  darting  actively  along, 
propelled  by  successive  pulsations  of  their  trans- 
parent bells.  It  is  at  first  difficult  to  conceive  that 
these  delicate  films  are  indeed  masses  of  organized 

o 

animal  matter,  so  frail  and  evanescent  do  they  ap- 
pear as  they  noiselessly  slip  by.  But  scoop  up  a 
Clytia,  or  a  Dactylometra  (PL  4,  Fig.  6),  and  ex- 
amine the  animal  leisurely  in  the  jar  that  has  been 
brought  for  that  purpose.  Structures  that  escaped 
our  attention  before  are  now  distinctly  visible.  The 
pulsating  bell  is  the  first  object  to  attract  our  no- 
tice. Its  perfect  transparency  permits  us  to  see, 
suspended  from  the  centre  of  the  interior,  a  pe- 
culiar pouch-like  body,  at  the  extremity  of  which 
is  situated  the  mouth.  The  water  entering  by  the 
mouth-  passes  into  the  hollow  of  the  pouch  or  manu- 
brium,  whence  it  is  in  great  part  distributed  to  the 
four  radiating  canals  which  descend  the  sides  of  the 
bell  to  its  base  and  divide  it  into  four  equal  parts. 
These  vessels,  which  constitute  a  part  of  the  circu- 
latory system  of  the  animal,  merge  into  a  common 
marginal  ring  which  surrounds  the  base  of  the  bell. 
From  this  ring  are  given  off"  a  number  of  long  pro- 
cesses, known  as  tentacles,  each  of  which  is  pro- 
vided with  the  very  remarkable  stinging  nettle-  or 
lasso-cells  to  which  reference  has  been  made  in  our 
description  of  Pennaria. 

This,  then,  is  the  substance  of  our  medusa — a 
quantity  of  water  encased  in  a  thin  film  of  animal 
matter.  Place  your  finger  gently  on  the  bell,  and  you 
will  probably  be  unable  to  detect  its  presence  there. 
Take  the  animal  from  the  water  and  expose  it  to 


SQUIRTS,   POLYPS,   AND   JELLY-FISHES.         65 

the  sun,  and  in  a  short  time  it  will  have  almost  com- 
pletely disappeared  through  evaporation.  Whence 
came  these  singular  creatures,  and  whither  do  they 
go  ?  The  greater  number  of  them  begin  life  in  a 
quiet  way  as  minute  buds  on  the  stems  of  the  cam- 
panularians  and  their  allies.  After  expanding  and 
acquiring  definite  shape  they  drop  off  from  the 
parent,  and  pass  into  that  stage  which  fits  them  for 
a  free  existence  on  the  oceanic  surface.  The  me- 
dusa thus  formed  for  some  time  leads  the  life  of 
an  independent  rover,  but  after  a  certain  period  it 
gives  birth  from  eggs  to  elongate  tiny  bodies,  known 
as  planulse,  which  soon  attach  themselves  and  grow 
up  into  the  grandparental  form  of  the  hydroid 
colony.  Thus  a  complete  cycle  of  changes  is 
brought  about.  Some  of  the  medusae  give  birth 
directly  to  other  medusae,  without  passing  through 
any  of  the  intermediate  conditions  that  have  just 
been  noted. 

The  transition  from  the  delicate  sea-bubbles, 
whose  existence,  it  would  seem,  could  be  wiped 
out  by  a  mere  blow  of  the  breath,  to  the  large  un- 
sightly jelly-pads  that  lie  scattered  over  the  shore 
after  high-water,  is  an  abrupt  one,  but  yet  the  two 
objects  are  much  the  same  thing.  One  is  merely  a 
large  jelly-fish,  while  the  other  is  a  small  one.  But 
on  the  open  sea  even  the  large  Cyanea,  whose  disk 
or  bell  measures  two  yards  in  diameter,  and  whose 
wilderness  of  tentacles  floats  out  to  a  distance  of 
a  hundred  feet  or  more,  is  a  beautiful  object,  re- 
flecting its  brilliant  tints  of  pink,  yellow,  blue,  and 
brown  to  striking  advantage.  When  cast  on  the 

e  6* 


66         SQUIRTS,    POLYPS,   AND   JELLY-FISHES. 

shore  lifeless  and  tentacleless,  deformed  and  decay- 
ing, it  cannot  but  present  a  more  or  less  repulsive 
appearance,  and  it  is  little  wonder  that,  from  what 
is  generally  their  first  experience,  most  people  want 
to  have  little  to  do  with  jelly-fishes.  In  the  case 
of  the  Cyanea  this  aversion  has  much  in  its  favor, 
since  the  animal  is  a  powerful  stinger,  and  can  in- 
flict injury  that  few  would  like  to  have  repeated. 

The  Cyanea  arctica,  which  is  the  largest  form  of 
jelly-fish  known,  is  one  of  the  commonest  of  the 
Atlantic  coast  species,  and  some  of  its  ill-shaped 
pads  can  at  almost  all  times  he  found  upon  the 
shore.  About  equally  common  is  the  '  sun-jelly/ 
or  Aurelia  (PL  4,  Fig.  1),  whose  disk,  however, 
rarely  measures  more  than  fifteen  inches  across. 
Both  species  are  the  product  of  tiny  attached  hy- 
droids  measuring  less  than  an  inch  in  length. 

Among  the  rarer  species  of  jelly-fish  occurring 
on  the  New  Jersey  coast  is  the  Portuguese-Man- 
of-War  (Physalia),  which  is  wafted  thither  from 
the  southern  waters  on  the  current  of  the  Gulf 
Stream.  In  this  species  of  remarkable  form  and 
exquisite  coloring  we  have  a  compound  colony  of 
free-swimming  hydroids  and  attached  medusae,  all 
united,  as  it  were,  under  a  single  roof — the  large 
swimming  bell  or  float.  Equally  rare  are  the 
closely-related  Yelella  (PL  4,  Fig.  9)  and  Porpita, 
although  the  disks  of  the  latter,  particularly  in  the 
southern  parts  of  the  State,  have  been  thrown  up 
by  hundreds  as  the  result  of  a  single  storm.  A 
small  round  jelly-fish,  of  much  the  size  and  appear- 


SQUIRTS,    POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES.         67 

ance  of  a  gooseberry,  but  of  an  exquisitely  deli- 
cate structure,  is  occasionally  thrown  on  our  shores. 
It  is  the  Pleurobrachia  rhododactyla,  the  type  of  a 

group  known  as  the  comb- 
bearers  ( Ctenophora),  which 
differ  in  some  essential 


PORPITA. 


points   of  structure  from 
the  normal  jelly-fishes. 

Probably  all  jelly-fishes 
are    phosphorescent,    and 


PLEUROBRACHIA. 

the  glow  of  golden  light 
which  they  emit  consti- 
tutes one  of  the  splen- 
dors of  the  oceanic  waste. 
From  far  and  near,  if  the  sea  be  agitated,  the 
mellow  lights  may  be  observed  to  illumine  the  en- 
veloping darkness,  while  along  the  surf-bound  coast 


PORTUGUESE-MAN-OF-WAR. 
(after  Tenney.) 


68         SQUIRTS,    POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES. 

a  continuous  fiery  crest  is  apt  to  mark  the  action  of 
the  breakers.  At  other  times,  in  a  quiet  sea,  there 
may  he  but  little  luminosity,  unless  the  water  is 
stirred  up  by  the  passage  of  a  boat  or  the  dip  of 
an  oar,  when  the  scattered  golden  drops  appear  as 
though  cast  in  metal.  How  much  of  the  phospho- 
rescence of  the  sea  is  produced  by  these  creatures 
alone  still  remains  to  be  determined,  but  that  they 
contribute  very  largely  to  the  phenomenon  there 
can  be  no  doubt. 

SEA-ANEMONES. 

In  her  charming  description  of  the  animals  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  Mrs.  Agassiz  says,  "  Nothing 
can  be  more  unprepossessing  than  a  sea-anemone 
when  contracted.  A  mere  lump  of  brown  or  whit- 
ish jelly,  it  lies  like  a  lifeless  thing  on  the  rock  to 
which  it  clings,  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  it 
has  an  elaborate  and  exceedingly  delicate  internal 
organization,  or  will  ever  expand  into  such  grace 
and  beauty  as  really  to  deserve  the  name  of  the 
flower  after  which  it  has  been  called."  And  such 
is  the  truth.  Only  when  the  animal  has  again  ex- 
panded, and  thrown  out  its  crown  of  delicate  feelers 
or  tentacles,  are  we  placed  in  a  position  to  appre- 
ciate fully  the  beauty  and  grace  of  the  flower  of  the 
sea.  The  rock-bound  tidal  pools  and  grottos  are 
the  favored  haunts  of  the  sea-anemone,  whose  vari- 
ously-tinted bodies  of  orange,  purple,  pink,  and 
white,  placed  in  relief  against  the  sombre  walls, 
produce  an  effect  rivalling  that  of  the  artist's  pa- 
lette. On  our  shores,  unfortunately,  the  absence 


SQUIRTS,    POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES.         69 

of  favoring  conditions  prevents  the  development 
of  these  interesting  animals,  which  only  at  com- 
paratively rare  intervals  may  be  picked  up  adhering 
to  sheltered  pieces  of  timber  or  to  rocks  that  have 
been  cast  into  the  sea.  One  of  the  species  occur- 
ring with  us  is  of  about  the  size  of  a  carrot  or  a 
turnip  (Actinia  rapiformis),  of  a  pink  or  light  flesh 
color,  and  with  a  compound  cluster  of  coarse  ten- 


ANEMONE  IN  DIFFERENT  STAGES  OF  EXTENSION  (after  Agassiz). 

tacles.  The  bands  that  are  seen  to  run  up  and 
down  and  across  the  body  are  the  muscular  bundles 
which  promote  expansion  or  contraction  on  the  part 
of  the  animal.  When  cast  up  by  the  waves  the 
animal  frequently  draws  itself  into  a  more  or  less 
globular  form,  which  has  been  likened  to  that  of 
an  onion  or  a  turnip.  A  much  more  delicate,  and 
apparently  rarer,  species  is  the  common  form  of 


70         SQUIRTS,   POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES. 

the  New  England  shores,  Metridium  marginatum, 
whose  rich  and  varied  coloring  of  pink,  chestnut, 
white,  orange,  yellow,  and  brown  stamps  it  as  one 
of  the  gems  of  the  sea. 

The  sea-anemones  are  next  of  kin  to  the  hy- 
droids  and  jelly-fishes,  and,  like  them,  their  plan  of 
structure  is  that  of  the  radiate  type.  Properly  to 
understand  the  organization  of  these  animals  you 
have  but  to  imagine  a  cylindrical  tube,  closed  at 
the  bottom,  and  tucked  back  upon  itself  on  top  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  make  a  tube  within  a  tube, 
precisely  as  the  finger  of  a  glove  is  pulled  within 
itself  when  it  does  not  readily  leave  the  hand.  The 
smaller  inner  tube  of  the  Actinia,  which  constitutes 
the  stomach  proper  of  the  animal,  communicates 
with  the  outer  world  by  means  of  the  upper  open- 
ing, the  mouth,  while  it  empties  below  into  the 
general  body-cavity  of  the  animal.  This  body- 
cavity,  into  which  sea-water  freely  penetrates,  is 
divided  by  a  number  of  vertical  partitions  into 
as  many  distinct  chambers,  from  which,  as  out- 
growths, arise  the  hollow  tentacles.  This  practi- 
cally represents  the  sum  total  of  the  organization 
of  a  sea-anemone.  Were  we  now  to  cut  one  of 
these  animals  transversely  across  the  body,  we 
should  find  an  inner  circle  within  an  outer  one, 
and  the  two  connected  by  a  number  of  radiating 
walls  or  partitions. 

The  majority  of  the  sea- anemones  attach  them- 
selves firmly  by  means  of  a  stout  muscular  disk, 
whose  tight  hold  secures  the  animal  against  the 
wash  of  the  sea.  A  few  are  free-swimming  on  the 


SQUIRTS,    POLYPS,   AND  JELLY-FISHES.         71 

surface  of  the  ocean,  while  still  others  bury  them- 
selves to  considerable  depths  in  the  sand  and  mud. 
The  beautiful  Cerianthus,  whose  purple-tentacled 
crowns  recall  the  asters  of  our  meadows,  is  an  abun- 
dant form  of  the  southern  sand-shallows,  which  in 
the  north  is  replaced  by  the  singular  worm-like 
and  mud-inhabiting  Halcampa.  Like  all  other  sea- 
anemones,  the  Halcampa  is  an  exceedingly  vora- 
cious animal,  and,  if  unguardedly  placed  in  a  vial 
of  sea-water  containing  marine  worms  and  like 
treasures  of  the  shore,  will  without  compunction 
almost  immediately  begin  a  meal.  And  it  is  won- 
derful to  what  an  extent  their  meal  may  be  drawn 
out. 

Another  sand-inhabiting  form,  frequently  found 
attached  to  the  under  surfaces  of  stones,  is  Sagar- 
tia  leucolena,  also  known  as  the  '  white- 
armed  anemone.'      It  is  a  much  less 
slender   species    than   the   preceding, 
and  differs  in  addition  in  the  greater 
number  and  length  of  its  tentacles. 

These  animals  multiply  from  eggs, 
by  budding,  and  by  fission — i.e.,  by 
constriction  and  subsequent  separa- 
tion of  the  body  into  two  or  more 
parts.  The  latter  process  is  repeated 
among  many  corals,  although  in  the 
greater  number  of  cases  their  com- 
pound colonies  are  built  up  through 
continuous  budding.  If'  you  can  con- 
ceive of  a  budded  or  compound  colony  of  sea- 
anemones  with  the  individual  animals  reduced  in 


HALCAMPA. 


72         SqUIRTS,   POLYPS,  AND  JELLY-FISHES. 

size  to  the  dimensions  of  small  polyps,  and  each 
individual  polyp  secreting  for  itself  an  outer  cover- 
ing of  lime  and  an  inner  series  of  lime  partitions 
(septa)  corresponding  to  the  fleshy  ones  that  have 
been  described,  you  have  before  you  the  struc- 
ture of  a  true  coral,  such  as  we  find  among  the 
great  reefs  of  tropical  waters.  A  single  species 
(Astrangia  astrceformis),  which  forms  encrusting 
colonies  on  stone  or  shell  from  one  to  three  inches 
across,  is  found  on  our  northern  coast,  and  has  been 
occasionally  picked  up  on  the  New  Jersey  shores. 


III. 

STAR-FISHES,  SEA-URCHINS,  AND   SEA-CUCUMBERS. 

IT  is  not  often  that  one  has  the  pleasure  of  meet- 
ing with  star-fishes  on  the  New  Jersey  coast,  but 
yet  they  are  occasionally  seen,  perhaps  more  fre- 
quently in  the  north,  and  thus  they  deserve  a  place 
here.  The  commoner  form  (Asterias  berylinus,  PL 
5,  Fig.  3)  is  a  fairly  large  species,  of  a  more  or  less 
greenish  color,  sometimes  inclining  to  brown,  and 
roughly  covered  with  tubercles.  Its  five  arms,  at 
the  extremity  of  each  of  which  is  situated  a  single 
red '  eye-speck,  are  somewhat  irregularly  disposed, 
and  not  rarely  one  is  stumpy  through  breakage  or 
unequal  development. 

It  is  "interesting  to  watch  the  movements  of  the 
star-fish.  From  the  under  surfaces  of  the  arms,  at 
whose  union  is  situated  the  central  mouth,  a  great 
number  of  delicate  tubules,  each  one  terminated  by 
a  minute  sucking-disk,  may  be  seen  to  be  vigor- 
ously in  motion,  the  whole  series  undulating  like 
wind-swept  grain.  These  tubules  are  hollow  and 
fed  from  within  with  sea-water,  the  increase  or 
diminution  of  which  within  the  tubules,  regulated 
at  the  will  of  the  animal,  determines  the  length  to 
which  they  may  be  extended  or  protruded.  At- 
taching themselves  to  foreign  objects  by  means  of 
their  sucking-disks,  the  animal  may  in  this  way  be 
D  7  73 


74  STAR-FISHES,   SEA-URCHINS,   ETC. 

either  drawn  forward,  or  the  object  of  its  search 
drawn  to  it.  The  system  of  vessels  which  supplies 
the  tuhules  with  water,  governing  as  it  does  the 
walking  apparatus  of  tube-feet,  is  known  as  the 
1  ambulacral'  system.  The  area,  again,  along  which 
the  tube-feet  (ambulacra)  are  placed  has  been 
called  the  ambulacral  zone,  and  the  intermediate 
spaces — the  sides  and  backs  of  the  arms — the  inter- 
ambulacral.  On  the  back  of  the  animal,  a  little 
sub-central,  and  in  the  angle  between  two  of  the 
arms,  is  a  tumid  little  body,  of  a  bright  orange 
color,  called  the  *  madreporic  tubercle,'  through 
which  the  sea-water  gains  access  to  the  ambulacral 
system  of  vessels. 

Star-fishes  are  voracious  animals,  and  they  have 
a  method  of  securing  their  food  which  is  at  once 
novel,  and,  to  say  the  least,  effective.  Seizing  their 
prey,  which  consists  largely  of  shell-fish,  they  arch 
themselves  over  it,  turn  their  stomachs  inside  out, 
so  as  completely  to  envelop  the  delicate  morsel,  and 
then  deliberately  proceed  to  make  a  meal.  On  some 
of  our  northern  coasts  the  star-fish  is  the  principal 
enemy  of  the  oyster  and  scallop,  vast  quantities  of 
the  former  being  annually  gobbled  up  by  this  five- 
armed  demon.  According  to  the  reports  of  fisher- 
men the  appearance  of  the  star-fishes  on  the  coast 
is  frequently  dependent  upon  the  earlier  appearance 
there  of  the  scallop.  Star-fishes  are  very  tenacious 
of  life,  and  they  will  bear  much  injury  without  suc- 
cumbing. Indeed,  each  individual  ray,  when  torn 
from  the  body,  has  the  power  of  reproducing  the 
entire  animal. 


STAR-FISHES,   SEA-URCHINS,   ETC.  75 

The  brittle-stars,  or,  as  some  choose  to  call  them, 
feather-stars  (PI.  5,  Fig.  5),  are  closely  related  to 
the  star-fishes,  differing  mainly  in  that  the  arms 
radiate  from  a  clearly-defined  central  disk,  and, 
being  more  nearly  solid,  do  not  contain  prolonga- 
tions of  the  stomach  or  of  the  ovaries  in  their  in- 
teriors. The  tube-feet  pass  out  from  the  plates 
along  the  sides  of  the  arms,  instead  of  from  the 
under  surface  as  in  the  star-fishes  proper. 

The  brittle-stars  are  fairly  active  creatures,  help- 
ing themselves  rapidly  over  the  sands  by  means  of 
their  long  flexible  arms.  Their  home  is  largely 
among  the  tangle  and  eel-grass,  where  their  pro- 
tective coloring  affords  them  a  safe  harbor. 

SEA-EGGS   AND   SAND-DOLLAES. 

Most  visitors  to  the  sea  are  acquainted  with 
the  appearance,  at  least,  of  the  <  sand-dollar'  (or 
<  sand-cake,'  as  it  is  sometimes  termed) — a  thin 
shelly  piece,  from  an  inch  and  a  half  to  three  inches 
across,  with  a  peculiar  stellate  ornamentation  on 
one  side,  and  irregular  grooves  and  channels  on  the 
other.  It  immediately  suggests  a  relationship  with 
the  star-fishes  through  its  well-made  star,  although 
in  a  general  way  it  appears  to  be  a  very  different 
animal.  Many  people,  indeed,  scout  the  idea  when 
informed  that  an  animal  inhabits  this  frail  habita- 
tion, so  unaccommodating  does  it  appear ;  but  an 
animal  dwells  within  it  nevertheless,  and  this  ani- 
mal is  truly  a  near  relation  to  the  star-fish. 

In  its  living  condition,  or  when  freshly  removed 
from  the  water,  the  sand-dollar  (Echinarachnius,  PI. 


76  STAR-FISHES,   SEA-URCHINS,   ETC. 

5,  Fig.  2)  is  of  a  reddish-brown  color,  and  com- 
pletely covered  over  with  minute  silken  bristles. 
These,  on  the  death  of  the  animal,  are  rapidly  re- 
moved, and  then  the  flat  disk  can  be  plainly  seen 
to  be  made  up  of  a  large  number  of  closely-fitting 
polygonal  plates,  arranged  in  twenty  series  around 
the  circumference.  The  petals  of  the  central  star, 
which  now  becomes  visible,  will  be  found  to  be 
made  up  of  transverse  slits,  and  if  the  direction  of 
the  petals  is  followed  to  the  border  of  the  disk,  it 
will  be  seen  that  the  slits  are  continued  by  pores. 
Through  these  slits  and  pores,  which  occupy  five 
pairs  of  plates,  the  tube-feet,  similar  in  character  to 
those  of  the  star-fish,  pass  out,  and  hence  define 
ambulacral  zones.  The  intermediate  five  pairs  of 
plates,  from  which  pores  are  absent,  will  then  be 
the  interambulacral  areas.  £Tow,  imagine  the  arms 
of  a  star-fish  turned  over  the  back  of  the  animal  so 
as  to  have  the  tips  meet,  the  animal  then  flattened 
out,  and  the  sides  of  the  arms  so  expanded  as  to 
close  in  the  interspaces:  you  would  then  have  a 
construction  much  as  in  the  sand-dollar  and  in  other 
sea-urchins.  This  appears  really  to  be  the  relation, 
but  just  how  the  diverging  modification  has  been 
brought  about  still  remains  to  be  determined.  The 
eye-specks,  which  in  the  star -fish  are  placed  at  the 
extremities  of  the  arms,  are  in  the  urchin  situated 
centrally  on  top,  or  just  where  we  should  expect  to 
find  them  on  the  assumption  above  stated. 

Alternating  with  the  eye-specks  are  the  ovarian 
apertures,  through  which  the  eggs  are  passed  out 
from  the  body.  In  the  cluster  of  small  plates  which 


STAR-FISHES,   SEA-URCHINS,   ETC.  77 

form  the  apical  disk  is  also  situated  the  madreporic 
tubercle.  The  entire  surface  of  the  shell,  seen  to 
better  advantage  in  a  second  species  of  our  coast, 
the  sea-egg  (Strongylocentrotus,  PI.  5,  Fig.  4), 
bristles  with  spines,  between  which  rise  the  very 
delicate  tube-feet,  swaying  to  and  fro  in  search  of 
objects  to  be  placed  within  their  grasp.  The  sea- 
urchins  like  to  conceal  themselves,  and  they  will 
thus  frequently  cover  their  habitations  with  sea- 
weed, grass,  pebbles,  and  shell-fragments.  In  this 
condition  they  can  be  readily  passed  over  without 
being  noticed  by  their  enemies.  A  southern  species 
when  placed  in  a  bucket  of  gravel  and  shell  will 
almost  immediately  disappear  beneath  the  surface, 
lifting  the  material  over  its  back.  Progression  is 
effected  almost  exclusively  by  means  of  the  tube- 
feet. 

Two  other  species  of  sea-urchin  occur  on  our 
coast — one,  the  purple  sea-urchin  (Arbacia punctulata, 
PI.  5,  Fig.  6),  a  convex  form,  readily  distinguish- 
able by  its  comparatively  stout  and  purple  spines ; 
and  the  other,  the  sand-cake  proper  (Mellita  quin- 
quefora,  PI.  5,  Fig.  1),  a  flattened  species  much  like 
the  sand-dollar,  easily  recognized  by  the  five  slits 
in  its  shell. 

It  would  scarcely  be  proper  to  complete  our 
notice  of  these  interesting  animals  without  calling 
attention  to  their  peculiar  five-toothed  masticatory 
apparatus  and  to  the  singular  bird-beaked  bodies 
— pedicellariae — which  rise  up  between  the  spines. 
The  full  function  of  the  latter  has  not  yet  been  as- 
certained, but  that  they  in  part  assist  in  removing 
.  7* 


78 


STAR-FISHES,   SEA-URCHINS,   ETC. 


obstructions  from  the  surface  of  the  test,  where  this 

is  necessary,  can  be  easily  seen. 

* 

SEA-CUCUMBERS. 

The  sea-cucumbers,  or  holothurians,  constitute  an 
interesting  group  of  animals  whose  members  live 
both  upon  the  rocks  and  buried  in  the  sand  or  mud. 
Although  so  different  in  gen- 
eral appearance,  they  repre- 
sent only  extreme  modifica- 
tions of  the  structure  seen  in 
the  star-fish  or  the  sea-urchin. 
Take  for  example  that  singu- 
larly attractive  creature  the 
Synapta,  whose  elongated 
leech-like  body  can  be  se- 
cured from  the  mud-flats  by 
the  aid  of  a  garden-trowel,  and 
examine  it.  The  transparent 
cylindrical  form,  permitting 
the  yellow  intestinal  canal  to 
be  clearly  visible  in  the  in- 
terior, shows  at  first  little  to 
connect  it  with  either  star-fish  or  sea-urchin,  but 
soon  you  will  perceive  five  well-defined  bands 
traversing  the  length  of  the  body  from  one  ex- 
tremity  to  the  other.  These  are  indeed  the  am- 
bulacra, although  in  this  instance  the  tubes  are 
closed  and,  so  far  as  locomotion  is  concerned,  func- 
tionless.  In  its  fundamental  structure,  therefore, 
the  sea-cucumber  is  only  a  greatly  elongated  sea- 
urchin,  being  pushed  out  axially,  as  it  were,  to  its 


SYNAPTA. 


STAR-FISHES,   SEA-URCHINS,   ETC.  79 

farthest  limit.  But  it  differs  in  many  details  of 
structure.  The  mouth  in  the  Synapta  is  surrounded 
by  a  wreath  of  branched  tentacles,  into  whose  in- 
terior the  sea-water  is  admitted  through  a  system 
of  vessels  connecting  with  a  madreporic  tubercle. 
The  latter  structure,  as  in  all  other  sea-cucumbers, 
is  placed  near  the  mouth. 

Closely  examined,  the  transparent  wall  of  the 
body  will  be  found  to  be  speckled  with  minute 
wart-like  processes,  giving  the  animal  a  rough  feel 
when  taken  in  the  hand.  These  processes  under  a 
microscope  reveal  most  extraordinary  forms,  which 
are  most  nearly  likened  in  outline  to  an  anchor  : 
hence  we  speak  of  the  anchor-like  spicules  em- 
bedded in. the  body-substance,  which  of  themselves 
frequently  offer  good  characters  in  the  determina- 
tion of  species.  In  some  forms,  as  in  the  remark- 
able pangolin-like  Psolus  of  the  E"ew  England 
coast,  these  processes,  or  rather  their  representa- 
tives, are  developed  into  an  armor  of  stout  over- 
lapping scales  or  plates. 

Placed  in  a  dish  of  sea-water,  the  habits  of  this 
interesting  creature  can  be  studied  at  leisure,  the 
regular  rhythmic  or  wave-like  motion  of  the  body 
proving  a  never-failing  source  of  surprise  to  those 
to  whom  the  animal  is  a  novelty.  At  some  mo- 
ments it  has  contracted  into  a  nearly  perfect  ball, 
at  other  times  it  has  straightened  itself  to  double 
its  usual  length.  Frequently  it  throws  off  parts  of 
the  posterior  end  of  its  body,  accomplishing  this 
curious  freak  either  by  close  constriction,  or  by  the 
forcible  expulsion  of  its  intestines.  In  feeding,  the 


80 


STAR-FISHES,   SEA-URCHINS,   ETC. 


Synapta  takes  in  large  quantities  of  fine  pebbles, 
sand,  and  shell,  from  which  it  doubtless  extracts 
considerable  nourishment.  These  objects  are  dis- 
tinctly visible  through  the  walls  of  the  body  and 
intestine. 

A  much  stouter  form  of  the  sands  is  the  Caudina, 


CAUDINA  ABENARIA. 


which  is  sometimes  thrown  up  in  considerable  num- 
bers after  a  storm.  Its  color  is  light  yellowish,  the 
texture  is  tough,  and  in  a  distant  way  the  animal 
might  be  likened  to  a  cucumber  greatly  attenuated 
at  one  extremity. 


IV. 

OUR    CARCINOLOGICAL    FRIENDS. 

AMONG  our  first  acquaintances  of  the  sea-shore 
are  sure  to  he  a  number  of  those  merry  sprites 
which  have  not  yet  mastered  the  lesson  of  how  to 
walk  straight — or  rather,  we  should  say,  walk 
straight  ahead,  for  if  many  of  the  crabs  have 
failed  to  acquire  the  habit  of  following  in  the 
direction  towards  which  the  head  points,  they  have 
well  acquired  the  art  of  diverging  straight  from  it 
at  a  right  angle.  It  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting sights  of  the  shore  to  observe  these  appar- 
ently one-sided  creatures  hurrying  off.  in  their  lat- 
eral progression,  making  probably  for  their  burrows 
in  the  sand  or  mud ;  pass  them,  and  note  how  rap- 
idly some  of  them  reverse  their  motion,  without 
even  so  much  as  stopping  to  glance  at  their  pur- 
suer. The  machinery  appears  to  have  given' out  at 
one  end,  when  they  immediately  reverse,  and  travel 
back  over  their  old  course.  Among  the  more  pro- 
nounced offenders  against  the  commonly  accepted 
law  of  proper  walking  are  the  little  c  fiddlers,'  or 
'  calling  crabs'  as  they  are  sometimes  termed. 
Their  burrows,  indicated  by  holes  about  as  large 
as  would  be  made  by  a  thrust  from  an  umbrella- 
point,  are  scattered  all  over  the  salt  marshes  and 
mud-flats  at  about  high-water  mark,  and  from 
/  81 


82  OUR   CARCINOLOQICAL  FRIENDS. 

them  you  can  frequently  see  the  little  animal 
peeping  forth,  preparatory  to  a  sally.  At  another 
part  of  the  flat,  where  the  thud  of  your  footsteps 
has  not  given  advance  signals  of  danger,  hundreds 
of  these  merry  crablings  are  probably  busily  occu- 
pied with  their  out-door  labors.  Approach  them, 
and  away  they  scamper  to  their  habitations.  There 
are  both  males  and  females  in  the  throng,  the  for- 


PIDDLEK  (Geladmus  vocator) 

mer  recognizable  by  the  very  undue  development 
of  one  of  the  claws,  which  is  carried  transversely 
in  front  of  the  head.  When  provoked,  the  animal 
brandishes  this  claw  in  a  somewhat  threatening 
manner,  which  has  been  likened  to  the  pulling 
of  a  violin-bow — hence  the  name  of  '  fiddler' — and 
by  others  to  the  action  of  beckoning  or  calling 
(hence  '  calling  crabs'). 

Taking  the  necessary  precaution  to  hold  the  big 


OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS.  83 

claw,  examine  somewhat  more  closely  one  of  these 
animals.  Observe  the  two  bead-like  compound 
eyes,  supported  on  long  stalks,  which  can  be  read- 
ily withdrawn  into  the  protecting  shield  of  the 
carapace.  The  manner  of  this  support,  allowing 
of  vision  in  almost  every  direction,  has  given  to 
the  group  in  which  this  structure  is  found  the 
name  of  the  stalk-eyed  crustaceans,  to  which,  in 
addition,  the  lobsters,  crayfishes,  hermits,  and 
shrimps,  etc.,  belong.  The  two  pairs  of  feelers  in 
front  of  the  eyes,  known  as  antennae  and  anten- 
nules,  are  of  peculiar  interest  as  examples  of 
combined  organs,  for,  apart  from  acting  in  their 
capacity  as  feelers  alone,  they  seem  to  subserve  the 
functions  of  smelling  and  hearing,  the  auditory 
apparatus  being  lodged  in  the  base  of  the  smaller 
pair.  The  feet  are  ten  in  number,  a  feature  dis- 
tinctive of  the  so-called  ten-footed  or  decapod  crus- 
taceans. At  first  sight  a  crab  appears  to  have  no 
tail,  but  if  the  animal  is  turned  over  on  its  back, 
the  tail — it  is  true,  a  comparatively  short  one — 
will  be  seen  to  be  safely  tucked  under  the  body. 
If  we  take  by  way  of  comparison  in  our  studies 
a  lobster  or  a  crayfish,  we  soon  perceive  that  there 
is  an  entirely  different  disposition  of  this  part  of 
the  body — that  the  tail,  or  more  properly  the  abdo- 
men, is  stretched  out  beyond  the  body  proper,  and 
that  it  is  greatly  elongated  in  relation  to  the  length 
of  the  animal.  We  thus  recognize  two  distinct 
groups  of  ten-legged  stalk-eyed  crustaceans :  the 
short-tailed  forms,  or  crabs  (Brachyura),  and  the 
opposite  or  long-tailed  forms,  such  as  the  lobster, 


84  OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS. 

the  shrimp,  etc.  (Macrura).  An  intermediate  type 
is  represented  by  the  hermit-crabs,  with  some  of 
whose  habits  we  have  already  become  acquainted. 

There  are  two  species  of  fiddler  found  on  our 
coast,  much  resembling  one  another  in  both  color 
and  ornamentation.  The  more  common  form  (Gela- 
simus  vocator)  has  a  smooth  and  shining  carapace, 
whereas  in  the  second. (Gelasimus  minax)  the  carapace 
is  minutely  granulated  and  in  part  tuberculated ; 
in  both  the  back  appears  impressed  with  a  figure 
much  like  that  of  the  letter  H. 

The  second  species,  which  appears  to  be  a  vege- 
table feeder,  is  much  the  larger  of  the  two,  and  its 
burrows  are  not  infrequently  one  and  a  half  inches 
across,  or  even  more.  It  inhabits  the  estuarine  re- 
gion, in  immediate  proximity  to  fresh  water,  rather 
than  the  tidal  flats,  and,  indeed,  it  appears  to  be 
able  to  get  along  for  weeks,  or  even  months,  with- 
out absolutely  requiring  salt  water. 

In  excavating,  the  fiddlers  throw  or  push  up  the 
pellets  of  moist  earth  by  means  of  their  anterior 
walking  legs,  depositing  their  burden  usually  at 
some  little  distance  from  the  mouth  of  the  burrow. 
At  the  approach  of  winter  they  close  up  the  domi- 
ciliary apertures,  and  pass  into  a  condition  of  tor- 
pidity until  the  advent  of  spring. 

Leaving  to  their  capers  the  noiseless  musicians 
of  the  shore,  let  us  examine  somewhat  more  closely 
the  forms  that  nature  has  fashioned  with  a  little 
nearer  approach  to  symmetry.  The  '  regular' 
crabs,  in  a  general  way,  look  very  much  alike,  dif- 
fering seemingly  only  in  the  proportion  of  parts 


6. 


FIG. 

1.  Cancer  irroratus. 

2.  Libinia  canaliculata. 

3.  Carcinus  moenas. 

4.  Callinectes  hastatus. 

5.  Platyonichus  ocollatus. 

6.  Gebia  affinis. 


PL.    6. 


OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS.  85 

and  ornamentation.  This  is,  however,  a  false  con- 
ception, for  they  differ  among  themselves  not  only 
in  important  structural  characters,  but  largely  also 
in  habit.  Some  are  habitually  walkers  of  the  sand, 
others  burrowers  in  the  mud,  a  few  parasitic  on  dif- 
ferent animals,  and  others,  again,  good  swimmers. 
A  number  use  the  floating  sea- weed  for  their  home, 
drifting  far  into  mid-ocean.  The  famous  Sargasso 
Sea  is  a  carcinological  world  of  itself.  Down  to 
a  depth  of  several  thousand  feet  in  the  sea  the 
lonely  crab  lurks  about  in  the  darkness,  finding 
companionship  with  the  mollusks  whose  shells  it 
frequently  robs.  Again,  on  mountain  heights  of 
4000  feet  elevation  or  more  the  land-crab  (Birgo)  is 
not  uncommonly  met  with  on  its  travels. 

Look  at  the  extremities  of  the  last  pair  of  legs 
of  the  soft-shell  crab  (PL  6,  Fig.  4) — the  crab  par 
excellence  of  the  Atlantic  coast — and  compare  them 
with  the  similar  parts  of  the  spotted  or  sand-crab 
(Cancer  irroratus,  PL  6,  Fig.  1),  the  common  trans- 
verse species,  whose  empty  « boxes'  are  to  be  found 
at  almost  all  times  on  the  beach.  In  this  species, 
which  can  be  readily  recognized  by  the  nine  blunt 
teeth  projecting  from  each  side  of  the  anterior  edge 
of  the  carapace,  they  are  merely  pointed  blades,  but 
in  the  soft-shell,  the  edible  form,  they  are  flattened 
out  into  paddles,  forming  efficient  swimming  organs. 
The  soft-shell  (Callinectes  hastatus)  is  thus  the  type 
of  a  group  of  swimming  crabs,  of  which  the  beau- 
tiful '  lady's  crab'  (Platyonichus  ocellatus,  PL  6, 
Fig.  5)  is  another  representative.  It  is  not  to  be 
assumed  that  these  swimmers  constantly  float  on 

8 


86  OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS. 

the  ambient  waters,  for  they  appear  to  delight  in 
the  mud-flats  as  much  as  the  other  species;  but 
they  possess,  in  the  art  of  swimming,  one  advan- 
tage over  their  fellows. 

When  the  embryo  crab  escapes  from  the  egg  it 
is  liberated  in  the  form  of  a  very  remarkable  little 
body  known  as  the  Zoea,  whose  real  nature  was  for 


ZOEA  OF  CRAB  (magnified).  MEGALOPS  (magnified). 

a  long  time  a  sealed  chapter  to  the  naturalist.  This 
Zoea  is  furnished  with  a  big  head  and  an  elongated 
body,  but  the  features  that  most  readily  arrest  one's 
attention  are  the  three  or  four  long  spines  which 
appear  to  be  carelessly  thrust  out  from  different 
parts  of  the  body  and  head,  and  which  give  to  the 
tiny  creature  a  singularly  uncouth  aspect.  For 
many  years  before  the  connection  between  the  Zoea 
and  the  crab  was  known,  the  former  was  looked 
upon  as  a  mature  animal,  and  naturally  regarded 
as  a  distinct  species.  From  the  Zoea  the  crab 
passes  by  gradual  stages  to  the  Megalops  con- 
dition, when,  as  the  name  indicates,  the  eyes  are 
developed  to  a  disproportionately  large  size.  In 
this  process  of  growth  to  maturity  the  crab  is  com- 
pelled at  repeated  intervals  to  cast  its  skin  or  shell, 


OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS.  87 

so  that  it  may  acquire  a  new  one  conformable  to 
its  progressive  stature.  This  process  of  sloughing 
the  shell  appears  to  take  place  annually ;  the  length 
of  time  required  for  its  full  accomplishment — i.e., 
from  the  moment  of  the  throwing  off  of  the  old 
shell  to  the  proper  cementing  of  the  new — being 
in  the  neighborhood  of  forty-eight  hours.  In  this 
interval  the  crab  is  known  as  a  <  soft-shell'  or 
'  shedder,'  in  which  condition  it  is  by  many  highly 
prized  as  an  article  of  food. 

The  common  edible  crab  or  '  blue  crab'  delights 
in  the  sheltered  muddy  shores  of  coves  and  bays, 
and  in  the  brackish  waters  of  estuaries,  where  it 
can  be  frequently  seen  in  numbers  swimming  up 
and  down  with  the  advancing  and  retreating  waters. 
The  young,  more  particularly,  frequent  the  tangle  of 
shore-line  grass  and  weed,  whence  in  case  of  alarm 
they  swim  out  to  deep  water.  The  food  of  this  spe- 
cies consists  largely  of  fishes,  certain  forms  of  which, 
in  turn,  destroy  great  quantities  of  the  crabs. 

Two  interesting  hole-inhabiting  crabs  somewhat 
related  to  the  fiddlers,  but  with  nearly  equally  de- 
veloped claws,  are  Sesarme  reliculata  and  Ocypoda 
arenaria.  The  latter,  which  is  also  sometimes 
known  as  the  c  sand-crab/  is  interesting  from  the 
close  approximation  of  its  coloring  to  that  of  the 
sand  in  which  it  dwells — an  instance  of  true  pro- 
tective resemblance.  It  is  carnivorous  in  habit, 
and  is  said  to  spring  upon  the  beach-fleas  much 
as  a  cat  springs  upon  mice. 

There  are  two  species  of  so-called  '  oyster  crab' 
on  our  coast,  which  possess  widely  different  habits. 


88  OUR  CARCINOLOQICAL  FRIENDS. 

One  of  these,  a  yellow-brown  species  whose  carapace 
measures  about  an  inch  across,  partakes  somewhat 
of  the  character  of  the  fiddlers  in  having  the  claws 
unequally  developed,  but  the  large  claw  is  carried 
in  the  normal  way  and  without  the  threatening 
exercise  of  the  fiddler.  The  species,  also  known  as 
'  mud-crab'  (Panopeus  Herbsti),  is  an  habitue  of  the 
oyster-beds,  where  it  is  said  to  destroy  large  quan- 
tities of  the  "oyster  spawn.  The  second  species 
(Pinnotheres  ostreum)  is  a  much  smaller  form,  not 
measuring  more  than  a  half-inch  in 
either  length  or  width,  and  is  habitu- 
ally associated  with  the  oyster  within 
the  latter's  shell. 
PINNOTHERES.  -A.  few  words  about  that  forbidding- 

looking  creature  the  sea-spider  (PL 
6,  Fig.  2).  This  crab,  of  seemingly  morose  habits, 
lacks  the  vivacity  of  the  other  species.  It  is  a 
somewhat  rare  visitor  to  the  open  shore,  preferring 
the  quiet  of  the  deeper  waters,  where,  in  apparent 
meditation,  it  leisurely  walks  over  the  encumbrances 
that  may  be  placed  in  its  path.  It  seems  to  shun 
observation,  and  frequently  allows  itself  to  be  over- 
grown by  plants  of  various  kinds,  hydroids,  etc., 
which  completely  mask  its  identity.  Although  by 
strangers  usually  given  a  wide  berth  on  account 
of  the  long  claws,  the  animal  is  but  a  feeble  repre- 
sentative of  a  group  whose  members  in  other  parts 
of  the  world  are  giants  in  comparison.  A  speci- 
men of  the  Japanese  Macrocheira  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  British  Museum  measures  some  eighteen 
feet  in  expanse  of  legs. 


OUR  CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS.  g9 

HERMIT-CRABS. 

These  sprightly  little  animals,  which  are  usually 
of  small  size,  are  a  source  of  never-failing  delight 
to  the  student  of  nature.  They  have  truly  habits 
of  their  own,  which  stamp  them  at  once  as  being 
original  and  distinctive.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
4  hermits'  derive  their  name  from  the  seclusion 
into  which  they  cast  themselves  as  inhabitants  of 
the  shells  of  other  animals,  but  it  is  probably  not 
so  generally  known  that  the  rights  of  tenantry  are 
frequently  exercised  in  a  very  arbitrary  manner. 
Thus,  the  hermit-crab  is  not  always  satisfied  in  the 
choice  of  a  dead  shell,  but  will  raid  upon  a  living 
possessor  and  attempt  to  drag  it  from  its  strong- 
hold ;  and  in  this  operation  the  assailant  will  fre- 
quently receive  the  assistance  of  a  number  of  its 
fellows,  each  one  carrying  his  castle  as  defensive 
armor.  It  is  true  that  the  attack  is  probably  in 
many  cases  made  for  the  double  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing the  enemy  as  well  as  its  belongings ;  but,  how- 
ever this  may  be,  forcible  possession  is  by  them 
considered  to  be  no  misdemeanor. 

In  the  greater  number  of  the  hermit-crabs  the 
body  is  unprotected  by  a  carapace,  and,  being  soft 
and  liable  to  injury,  the  animal  seeks  protection 
under  cover  usually  of  a  snail-shell,  winding  itself 
about  the  coils  of  the  shell,  to  the  inner  extremity 
of  which  it  attaches  itself  by  means  of  its  modified 
posterior  feet.  In  this  position  the  animal  is  only 
with  difficulty  withdrawn,  retracting  itself  farther 
and  farther  within  cover  of  the  shell.  A  sudden 

8* 


90  OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS. 

fracture  of  the  apex  of  the  shell,  under  which  ap- 
pears to  be  the  most  delicate  part  of  the  animal's 
body,  will  generally  effect  an  immediate  dislodge- 
ment,  the  terrified  crab  dropping  from  the  aper- 
ture. "With  its  progressive  development  in  size  the 
hermit  requires  frequent  changes  of  abode,  and  its 
methods  in  securing  a  new  habitation  are  among 
the  most  interesting  of  the  special  habits  acquired 
by  animals.  The  creature  is  very  circumspect,  and 
will  make  several  reconnoissances  before  he  feels 
fully  satisfied  with  the  size,  manner,  etc.,  of  a  pros- 
pective habitation,  retiring  after  each  visit  to  the 
old  shell.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Lockwood  thus  graphi- 
cally describes  the  line  of  operations  involved  in 
house-hunting : 

"  But  the  hermit  grows,  while  the  shell  which  he 
occupies  does  not.  Hence,  like  many  bipeds,  he 
has  his  first  of  May,  so  he  goes  house-hunting. 
This  must  be  understood  literally.  He  finds  a 
shell.  Will  it  do  ?  First,  then,  is  it  really  to  let  ? 
He  will  inquire  within.  This  he  does,  if  not  most 
courteously,  very  feelingly.  Satisfied  on  this  point, 
the  next  question  is,  will  the  house  suit  ?  He  turns 
it  over,  then  turns  it  round.  You  see,  the  weight 
of  one's  house  is  quite  an  item  in  the  reckoning  to 
him  who  has  to  carry  it  on  his  back.  One  inspec- 
tion more.  How  is  it  inside  ?  Is  it  certainly  empty 
and  of  the  right  size  ?  Up  goes  one  of  the  slender 
limbs  of  the  second  pair,  and  the  interior  is  thor- 
oughly explored.  All  right !  Just  the  house  he  is 
after.  His  mind  is  made  up  to  move.  Look  at 
him !  Quick !  or  you  will  miss  it !  Out  comes  the 


OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS.  91 

body  from  the  old  house,  and  pop  it  goes  into  the 
new  one.  The  resolution  to  move  was  taken,  the 
surrender  of  the  old  house  was  made,  and  the  oc- 
cupancy of  the  new  was  effected,  and  all  within  a 
fraction  of  a  second  of  time. 

"  Sometimes  this  matter  goes  on  less  pleasantly. 


'WARTY  HERMIT'  IN  PEAR-CONCH. 


Two  house-hunters  may  find  the  same  tenement. 
Should  both  desire  it,  then  comes  the  tug  of  war. 
Live  together  they  neither  can  nor  will.  The  affair 
is  settled  by  a  battle,  in  which  the  stronger  proves 


92  01712   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS. 

his  claim  right  by  the  Carlyleian  logic  and  morals, 
viz.,  might.  Quite  often  from  these  encounters  a 
terrible  mutilation  results.  To  us  it  is  a  sad  sight 
to  see  the  little  hermit  when  his  time  has  come,  and 
he  knows  it;  that  is,  when  Eupagurus  must  die. 
However  droll  his  career  may  have  been,  the  little 
hermit  is  grave  then.  And  what  a  strange  fact  it 
is!  Who  can  explain  it?  The  poor  little  fellow 
come§  out  of  his  house  to  die.  Yes,  in  order  to 
die.  To  us  humans  home  is  the  only  right  place 
to  die  in.  But  for  Eupagurus  home  has  no  attrac- 
tions at  this  solemn  time.  Poor  fellow  !  with  a  sad 
look  and  melancholy  movement  he  of  his  own  will 
quits  the  house  for  which  he  fought  so  well.  Those 
antennae,  or  feelers,  that  often  stood  out  so  pro- 
vokingly  and  were  so  often  poked  into  everybody's 
business,  now  lie  prone  and  harmless.  The  eyes 
have  lost  their  pertness.  There  lies  the  houseless 
hermit  on  that  mossy  rock,  stone  dead." 

The  two  species  of  hermit  occurring  on  our  coast 
can  be  readily  distinguished  from  each  other  by 

their  size  and  the  differ- 
ence in  the  shape  of  the 
big  claw.  The  '  warty 
hermit'  (Eupagurus  pol- 
licaris\  the  larger  spe- 
cies, inhabits  the  shells 
of  the  big  Naticas  and 
the  Fulgurs,  and  can  be 

LITTLE  HERMIT  (Eupagurus  longicar-     immediatelv    recognized 

PUS}'  T_        -j.  -L.  J       1 

by  its  coarse  broad  claws, 
which  in  great  part  close  up  the  aperture  of  the 


OUR  CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS.  93 

shell  occupied  by  it.  In  the  more  common  form 
of  the  small  shells  (Eupagurus  longicarpus),  which 
rarely  attains  a  length  much  exceeding  one  inch, 
the  legs  are  all  much  elongated,  giving  the  animal 
a  very  slender  appearance. 

SHRIMPS   AND    PRAWNS. 

Of  the  long-tailed  ten-footed  crustaceans  (Ma- 
crura)  the  best-known  representatives  are  the  lob- 
ster, shrimp,  and  prawn.  The  first,  which  is  too 
familiar  to  require  special  notice,  can  scarcely  be 
considered  to  be  a  true  member  of  the  New  Jersey 
coast  fauna,  having  been  introduced  with  the  build- 
ing of  the  Delaware  breakwater,  where  it  has  se- 
cured somewhat  of  a  permanent  footing.  Its  rarity 
otherwise  must  be  attributed  to  the  absence  of  an 
environment  suited  to  its  living  and  development. 
The  rocky  shores  of  the  North  constitute  its  true 
home,  and  although  stray  individuals  are  found 
farther  south,  they  rarely  appear  below  the  East 
River.  The  species  sometimes  attains  an  enormous 
size,  individuals  frequently  weighing  as  much  as 
fifteen  to  twenty  pounds,  and  occasionally  passing 
much  beyond  this  limit.  An  animal  somewhat  re- 
sembling the  lobster,  although  considerably  smaller 
in  size — measuring  only  three  or  four  inches  in 
length— is  the  Gebia  affinis  (PI.  6,  Fig.  6),  a  pro- 
found burrower  of  the  mud-flats. 

The  shrimps  and  prawns,  which  much  resemble 
one  another,  are  abundant  in  the  bays  and  harbors, 
passing  up  to  considerable  distances  in  the  tidal 
streams  and  creeks.  They  are  active  little  creatures, 


94  OUR  CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS. 

of  a  light-green  color,  or  nearly  colorless,  and  often 
quite  translucent.  In  this  country  they  are  not  so 
highly  esteemed  as  an  article  of  food  as  they  are 
in  either  England  or  France,  where  the  prawn- 
fishery  constitutes  an  important  branch  of  industry. 
Our  common  shrimp  (Crangon  vulgaris,  PI.  7,  Fig. 
8),  which  can  he  distinguished  from  the  prawn 
(Palaemon,  PL  7,  Fig.  9)  by  the  terminal  joints  of 
the  two  anterior  pairs  of  legs  being  undivided,  and 
by  the  filiform  structure  of  the  succeeding  legs,  does 
not  appear  to  differ  from  the  ordinary  European 
species.  It  is  abundant  in  the  waters  of  the  sandy 
flats,  where  by  reason  of  its  har- 
monizing coloring  it  escapes  ready 
detection.  Both  shrimps  and 
prawns  are  frequently  infested 
with  a  loathsome  parasite,  which 
attaches  itself  as  a  round  black 
mass  on  one  side  of  the  neck  of 
the  victim.  This  parasite  is  in 
itself  a  crustacean,  known  to  nat- 
uralists as  Bopyrus. 

A  so-called  shrimp,  not  to  be 
confounded  with  either  of  the  pre- 
ceding, is  the  Mysis  stenolepis  (PI.  7,  Fig.  1),  which 
appears  more  abundantly  about  our  coasts  during 
the  winter  months.  It  may  be  distinguished  from 
the  true  shrimps  by  its  cloven  or  double  feet,  and  by 
the  external  position  of  the  gills.  From  the  circum- 
stance of  its  carrying  its  eggs  in  a  pouch  underneath 
the  thorax  it  has  received  the  familiar  name  of 
'  opossum  shrimp,'  by  which  it  is  generally  known. 


7. 


FIG. 

1.  Mysis  stenolepis. 

2.  Limnoria  terebrans  (X  7). 

3.  Caprella  geometrica  (X  2 

4.  Idotea  irrorata. 

5.  Gammarus  ornatus. 

6.  Orchestia  agilis  (X  4). 

7.  Amphithoe  maculata. 

8.  Crangon  vulgaris. 

9.  Palaemon  vulgaris. 
10.    Unciola  irrorata. 


OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS. 


95 


HlPPA  EMERITA. 


A  common  object — indeed,  one  of  the  commonest 
objects  of  the  sands — is  the  cylindrical  mole  crab 
or  '  sand-bug'  (Hippa  emerita\ 
whose  vertical  burrows  open 
up  in  great  number,  partic- 
ularly in  the  lower  tidal  re- 
gion. The  animal  is  a  remark- 
ably rapid  burrower,  pushing 
itself  head  downward  by  means 
of  its  anterior  or  thoracic  feet. 
As  a  rule,  but  little  organic 
matter  is  found  within  the  ali- 
mentary canal  of  the  mole  crab, 
which  appears  to  subsist  largely 
upon  the  nutriment  extracted  from  the  swallowed 
sand.  It  constitutes  a  favorite  article  of  food  with 
many  fishes. 

BEACH-FLEAS,  HOPPERS,  AND  SOW-BUGS. 

A  walk  at  almost  any  hour  along  the  sandy  beach 
is  sure  to  stir  up  a  number  of  the  little  hopping 
crustaceans  to  which  the  name  of  '  beach-flea'  or 
'  sand-flea'  has  been  applied  (Orchestia  agilis,  PI.  7, 
Fig.  6).  They  hop  up  in  front  of  your  footsteps, 
and  leave  with  equal  celerity  the  seat  that  may  have 
been  selected  for  you,  but  not  until  you  have  turned 
over  the  long  line  of  sea-wrack  (dried  sea-weed) 
which  fronts  the  ocean  at  high- water  mark  can  you 
have  any  just  conception  of  the  multitudes  that  are 
here  busily  engaged  in  performing  the  offices  of  the 
public  scavenger.  Decayed  and  decaying  parts  of 
both  plants  and  animals  are  equally  acceptable  to 


96  OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS. 

the  beach-flea.  Examine  the  legs  of  one  of  these 
animals,  and  you  will  observe  that  they  are  disposed 
on  either  side  in  two  dissimilar  series ;  hence  the 
name  of  Amphipoda,  double-footed,  that  has  been 
applied  to  the  broad  group  to  which  the  hopper 
belongs.  Two  closely  related,  but  larger,  species, 
of  a  gray  rather  than  of  an  olive  or  brown  color, 
constitute  the  genius  Talorchestia. 

A  form  much  like  the  preceding,  but  with  aquatic 
habits,  is  found  in  both  salt  and  fresh  waters, 
largely  frequenting  the  meshes  of  the  rock-weed 
(Fucus).  The  Gammarus  (PL  7,  Fig.  5),  for  so  the 
animal  is  known  to  naturalists,  is  a  helpless  creature 
out  of  water,  shuffling  along  on  its  side  in  a  vain 
endeavor  to  elude  its  pursuers  or  to  regain  the 
water.  It  occurs  in  vast  numbers  in  favored  lo- 
calities, contributing  largely  to  the  food-supply  of 
many  of  our  coast  fishes. 

Another  interesting  amphipod  of  our  coast  is 
found  abundantly  on  the  surfaces  of  submarine 
plants,  and  also  on  sponges,  where  it  may  be  seen 
moving  about  in  the  manner  of  the  ordinary  meas- 
uring-worms, arching  over  its  body,  and  advancing 
alternately  the  two  extremities.  From  this  close 
resemblance  to  the  progression  of  the  geometer 
worms  it  has  received  the  name  of  Caprella  geo- 
metrica  (PI.  7,  Fig.  3). 

Of  the  less  attractive  group  of  the  sow-bugs, 
many  of  whose  members,  such  as  the  Bopyrus, 
already  mentioned,  are  parasitic  on  the  tissues  of 
other  animals,  but  few  forms  are  likely  to  come 
to  the  notice  of  the  visitor  to  the  sands.  One  of 


OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS.  97 

these  (Idotea  cceca)  is  the  little  creature  whose  ser- 
pentine tracks  over  the  sand  have  so  frequently 
called  forth  the  query,,  What  animal  made  them  ? 
The  species  is  found  all  the  way  from  Massachusetts 
to  Florida.  A  second  form  (Stenosoma  irrorata,  PI. 
7,  Fig.  4),  of  a  deep-purple  or  sea-green  color,  will 
probably  be  recognized  by  many  as  the  active  spirit 
of  the  quieter  waters,  whose  gyrations  strongly  sug- 
gest a  scheme  of  self-imposed  perpetual  motion.  A 
third  species  (Limnoria  terebrans,  PI.  7,  Fig.  2)  can 
generally  be  found  only  beneath  the  water-surface, 
where  it  attacks  almost  any  timber — piles,  piers  of 
bridges,  wharves,  etc. — that  may  be  brought  within 
its  reach.  It  is  asserted  that  piles  lose  as  much  as 
an  inch  in  diameter  annually  through  the  ravages 
of  this  pest.  Coating  with  verdigris  or  creosote, 
or  sheathing  with  metallic  copper,  has  proved  effi- 
cacious as  a  preventive  of  destruction. 

In  all  these  forms  the  body  is  largely  symmetrical 
in  outline,  and  the  numerous  pairs  of  legs  are  of 
nearly  equal  size  and  equally  disposed  along  the 
sides  of  the  body ;  hence  the  term  Isopoda,  equal- 
footed,  that  has  been  applied  to  the  group  in  general. 

SQUILL. 

Our  description  of  the  Crustacea  of  the  coast 
would  not  be  complete  without  reference  being 
made  to  a  somewhat  rare  species,  the  squill,  which 
is  figured  on  the  following  page.  The  animal  can 
be  immediately  recognized  by  its  greatly  elongated 
and  flattened  body,  measuring  from  four  to  six, 
or  exceptionally  ten,  inches  in  length,  the  great 

B         a  9 


98  OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS. 

delicacy  of  all  its  ambulatory  appendages,  except 
the  first  pair,  and  the  greatly  developed  swim- 
merets  of  the  posterior  part  of  the  body.  The 
exterior  (?)  pair  of  feelers  (antennae)  have  also  a 
peculiar  structure,  being  spread  out  into  an  oval 
ciliated  plate. 

The  animal,  which  is  a  close  relative  of  a  com- 


SQUILLA  EMPUSA. 


mon  European  species,  is  in  many  regions  highly 
esteemed  as  an  article  of  food.  It  is  a  true  bur- 
rower,  but  as  yet  little  positive  is  known  of  its 
general  habits. 


OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS. 


99 


THE   HORSESHOE   CRAB:    IS  IT   A   GIANT   SPIDER-FORM? 

Those  among  us  to  whom  the  horseshoe  crab,  or 
king-crab  as  it  is  frequently  called,  in  allusion  to 
its  large  size,  is  known 
only  in  its  general  de- 
tails, would  probably 
scarcely  think  it  worth 
while  to  consider  the 
question  as  to  its  posi- 
tion in  the  animal 
world.  What  should 
it  be  other  than  the 
*  crab'  that  it  has  al- 
ways been  considered  ? 
With  our  carcinologi- 
cal  friends  it  agrees 
in  the  possession  of  a 
crusty  envelope  or 
shield,  it  breathes  by 
means  of  gills,  inhabits 
the  water  or  mud  like 
them,  and  has,  more- 
over, the  end-joints  of 
the  legs  pincered  (che- 
late).  Further,  it  peri- 
odically sheds  its  shield  like  the  crabs.  But  relent- 
less and  pursuing  science  has  shown  that  in  many 
points  of  structure  the  animal  is  closely  related  to 
the  scorpions,  and  perhaps  even  more  closely  than 
to  the  entire  group  of  crust-bearing  animals  as  such 
(crabs,  shrimps,  lobsters,  etc.).  This  relation  is  seen 


HORSESHOE  CRAB. 


100  OUR  CARCINOLOGICAL   FRIENDS. 

in  the  nature  of  the  walking  legs,  in  the  disposition 
and  origin  of  the  nerves  supplying  the  legs,  in  the 
structure  of  the  eye,  and  in  the  manner  of  develop- 
ment of  the  emhryo.  As  against  this  evidence  we 
have  the  presence  of  true  gills,  and  the  absence  of 
the  peculiar  breathing-tubes  (tracheae)  of  the  scor- 
pion ;  but  whether  these  important  points  of  dis- 
similarity are  of  greater  value  than  those  of  affinity 
above  indicated,  must  still  be  considered  an  open 
question. 

The  crust  of  the  horseshoe  crab  is  divided  into 
three  distinct  parts,  an  anterior  rounded  portion, 
known  as  the  cephalothorax,  which  protects  the 
more  vital  elements  of  the  animal's  body — mouth, 
stomach,  heart,  and  legs ;  a  median  portion,  the  ab- 
domen, on  the  under  side  of  which  are  the  gills,  a 
series  of  thin  plates  disposed  in  the  fashion  of  the 
leaves  of  a  book ;  and  a  greatly  elongated  spine  or 
tail.  The  cephalothorax  carries  on  its  back  two 
pairs  of  eyes,  of  which  the  two  big  eyes  situated 
on  either  side  of  the  shield  are  compound,  while 
the  others,  small  and  placed  medially  to  the  front, 
are  simple. 

Although  it  would  seem  from  the  general  vaulted 
appearance  of  the  shield  that  the  body  of  the  animal 
is  of  considerable  thickness,  the  reverse  is  actually 
the  case.  The  under  surface  of  the  carapace  follows 
closely  upon  the  inner  face  of  the  upper  surface, 
except  along  the  medial  region,  where  the  body- 
space  is  considerably  expanded.  In  this  central 
part  is  situated  the  alimentary  tract,  the  mouth 
opening  between  the  bases  of  the  second  of  the 


OUR  CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS.  1Q1 

six  pairs  of  legs.  The  food,  which  consists  of  va- 
rious small  animals,  largely  worms,  is  conveyed  to 
the  mouth  by  one  or  more  of  the  foot-pincers,  where 
it  is  closely  rasped  and  triturated  by  the  rubbing 
together  of  the  spiny  basal  joints  of  the  legs. 

The  horseshoe  crab  (Limulus  polyphemus)  prefers 
for  its  habitat  the  protected  bays  and  estuarine 
waters,  where  it  burrows  in  the  sand  or  mud  just 
sufficiently  to  cover  its  body.  In  this  operation  of 
burrowing  the  head  is  the  excavating  organ,  while 
the  feet  and  tail,  firmly  pressed  backward,  are  the 
force.  When  placed  on  its  back  the  animal  has 
some  difficulty  in  at  first  righting  itself,  but  by 
arching  upward  the  carapace,  at  the  same  time  re- 
ceiving assistance  from  the  tail,  it  soon  recovers 
itself. 

The  horseshoe  crab  so  closely  resembles  in  ap- 
pearance and  structure  the  ancient  trilobites,  whose 
remains  are  so  numerously  buried  in  the  older  rock- 
deposits  of  our  earth,  that  there  are  strong  grounds 
for  concluding  that  the  latter  were  the  true  pro- 
genitors of  the  modern  race,  a  conclusion  that  has 
been  strongly  reinforced  by  the  embryolbgical  study 
of  the  two  types.  The  young  Limulus,  in  fact,  so 
nearly  resembles  the  young  of  certain  forms  of 
trilobites  as  to  be  barely  distinguished  from  them ; 
at  this  period  the  spine  is  still  wanting.  Subse- 
quent moulting  of  the  carapace  is  preceded  by  a 
splitting  of  the  latter  along  its  border,  the  animal 
drawing  itself  through  the  opening  thus  made. 

This  species  is  found  abundantly  along  the  coast 
from  Maine  to  Florida.  Where  left  exposed  on 

9* 


102  OUR  CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS. 

the  beach  for  some  time,  the  gill-sacs  are  apt  to 
become  infiltrated  with  the  sand,  when  their  pe- 
culiar accordion-like  disposition  becomes  apparent. 
When  thus  distended  in  irregular  rolls  they  are  com- 
monly supposed  to  represent  egg-capsules  strung 

together  on  a  ribbon. 

Before  dismissing  the  sub- 
ject of  spider  forms,  it  may 
be  well  to  call  attention  to 
the  singular  slender  (eight- 
legged)  creatures  that  are 
frequently  met  with  on  hy- 
droid  colonies  and  on 

SEA-SPIDER.  -r-.  ,1     •       T 

sponges.  From  their  dis- 
tinctive forms,  and  their  habit  of  living  in  the 
oceanic  waters,  they  have  been  named  '  sea-spiders' 
(Pycnogonoids) ;  but  their  exact  relationship  has 
not  yet  been  determined. 

THE    GOOSE   BARNACLE,  AND   BARNACLES   IN   GENERAL. 

Of  the  remarkable  traditions  which  have  invested 
the  life-histories  of  many  of  our  animals  none  is 
perhaps  more  indicative  of  a  fertile  imagination 
than  that  which  ascribes  to  the  barnacle  the  power 
of  giving  birth  to  a  fowl  (barnacle  goose).  How 
such  a  notion  could  ever  have  attained  currency, 
and  met  with  a  firm  acquiescence  on  the  part  of 
scholars  of  even  a  high  degree  of  learning  and 
intelligence,  is  almost  inconceivable.  Yet  we  have 
not  only  acknowledgment  of  a  full  belief  in  this 
miracle,  but  positive  assurances  from  otherwise  re- 


OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL   FRIENDS.  1Q3 

spectable  eye-witnesses  as  to  the  exact  stages  by 
which  the  miracle  was  accomplished.  And  even 
to-day  some  people,  with  child-like  simplicity,  ask 
if  there  exists  any  connection  between  the  two 
animals. 

The  following  passages  from  "  The  Herball  or 
Generall  Historic  of  Plantes,"  a  voluminous  trea- 
tise of  1500  pages  by  John  Gerarde  (edition  of 
1636),  may  prove  interesting  in  this  connection: 
" .  .  .  we  are  arrived  at  the  end  of  our  History ; 
thinking  it  not  impertinent  to  the  conclusion  of  the 
same,  to  end  with  one  of  the  marvels  of  this  land 
(we  may  say  of  the  World).  The  history  whereof 
to  set  forth  according  to  the  worthinesse  and  raritie 
thereof,  would  not  only  require  a  large  and  peculiar 
volume,  but  also  a  deeper  search  into  the  bowels 
of  Nature,  than  my  intended  purpose  will  suffer  me 
to  wade  into,  my  sufficiencie  also  considered ;  .  .  . 
in  the  meane  space  take  it  as  it  falleth  out,  the 
naked  and  bare  truth,  though  unpolished.  There 
are  found  in  the  North  parts  of  Scotland  and  the 
islands  adiacent,  called  Orchades,  certaine  trees 
whereon  do  grow  certaine  shells  of  a  white  colour 
tending  to  russet,  wherein  are  contained  little  living 
creatures;  which  shells  in  time  of  maturity  doe  open, 
and  out  of  them  grow  those  little  living  things,  which 
falling  into  the  water  do  become  fowles,  which  we 
call  Barnacles;  in  the  North  of  England,  brant 
Geese;  and  in  Lancashire,  tree  Geese;  but  the 
other  that  do  fall  upon  the  land  perish  and  come 
to  nothing.  .  .  . 

"  But  what  our  eies  have  seene,  and  hands  have 


104  OUR  CARCINOLOGICAL   FRIENDS. 

touched  we  shall  declare  .  .  .  when  it  is  perfectly 
formed  the  shell  gapeth  open,  and  the  first  thing 
that  appeareth  is  the  foresaid  lace  or  string ;  next 
come  the  legs  of  the  bird  hanging  out,  and  as  it 
groweth  greater  it  openeth  the  shell  by  degrees, 
till  at  length  it  is  all  come  forth,  and  hangeth  only 
by  the  bill :  in  short  space  after  it  commeth  to  full 
maturity,  and  falleth  into  the  sea,  where  it  gather- 
eth  feathers,  and  groweth  to  a  fowle  bigger  than  a 
Mallard,  and  lesser  than  a  Goose.  .  .  ." 

The  goose  barnacles  are  common  objects  about 
the  shore,  being  thrown  up  in  bunches  along  with 
the  foreign  bodies  to  which  they 
are  generally  found  attached.  They 
locate  themselves  on  piles,  below 
the  water-line,  to  the  bottoms  of 
ships,  to  drift-wood,  sea-weed,  float- 
ing fruit,  and,  indeed,  to  almost 
any  object  that  comes  in  their  way. 
The  peduncle  or  stalk  upon  which 

GOOSE  BAKNACLE.       the  encased  b°dv  °f  ,the    animal   is 

supported  has  its  origin  in  one  of  the 
pairs  of  larval  feelers  or  antennae,  which  through 
modification  and  additional  deposition  of  matter 
undergo  such  transformation  as  to  permit  of  the 
new  function  to  which  they  are  now  applied.  The 
shell,  or  c  capitulum/  consists  of  five  pieces,  four 
lateral  and  one  marginal  (the  keel  or  carina).  On 
the  margin  opposite  to  the  keel  it  is  open,  permit- 
ting of  the  extrusion  of  the  six  pairs  of  (double) 
long,  feathery  feet,  whose  continuous  motion  cre- 
ates currents  in  the  direction  of  the  shell,  which 


OUR  CARCINOLOGICAL   FRIENDS.  1Q5 

serve  to  carry  the  necessary  nutritive  particles  to 
the  mouth. 

As  we  find  it  in  its  adult  condition  the  barnacle 
is  a  much  altered  or  metamorphosed  animal,  wholly 
unlike  what  it  was  before  it  became  attached.  In 
its  earlier  stage  it  is  a  free-swimming,  active  creat- 
ure,  with  well-developed  legs  and  a  hinged  bivalve 
shell,  on  the  whole  much  like  some  of  our  so- 
called  fresh-water  fleas  (Cypris).  But  it  soon  fixes 
itself  by  means  of  suckers  developed  upon  the 
first  pair  of  antennae,  exudes  a  slimy  substance 
which  helps  to  make  the  stalk,  and  thus,  head 
downward,  passes  through  those  subsequent  met- 
amorphoses which  lead  up  to  the  mature  animal 
and  almost  completely  mask  its  true  character. 
Indeed,  until  within  a  comparatively  few  years  the 
barnacles  were  classed  with  the  mollusks,  even  the 
great  Cuvier  mistaking  their  affinities. 

It  might  naturally  be  supposed  that  an  animal 
so  tightly  closed  up  in  its  shell  as  is  the  barnacle 
would  have  little  use  for  organs  of  vision,  and  that 
accordingly  these  organs  would  be  found  wanting. 
But  careful  investigation  of  the  tissues  has  revealed 
the  presence  of  a  single  eye-speck,  of  a  duplex 
origin,  not  far  from  the  region  of  the  mouth,  which, 
though  thus  deeply  hidden  within  the  shell,  still 
permits  the  animal  to  distinguish  at  least  between 
light  and  darkness.  Allow  your  hand  to  pass  over 
a  pan  of  sea-water  containing  barnacles,  and  ob- 
serve by  their  actions  how  readily  the  animals  dis- 
tinguish between  the  different  intensities  of  light. 

Several  species  of  stalked-barnacles  are  found  on 


106  OUR   CARCINOLOGICAL  FRIENDS. 

our  coast,  the  two  commoner  being  Lepas  anatifera, 
in  which  the  stalks  grow  to  a  length  of  from  four 
to  six  inches,  and  Lepas  fascicularis,  in 
which,  as  the  name  indicates,  a  consid- 
erable number  of  individuals  are  closely 
bunched  together  or  fasciculated.  The 
former  species,  found  on  the  bottoms  of 
LEPAS  FASCIC-  ships,  is  probably  not  indigenous  to  the 

ULARIS.  .  i     .  ,.  ,   .    , 

region.  It  is  an  erroneous  notion,  which 
is  shared  by  many,  that  the  barnacles  in  any  way 
injure  the  holds  of  vessels  to  which  they  may  be 
attached.  They  merely  impede  navigation  through 
the  resistance  which  their  enormous  numbers  offer 
to  the  water,  and  hence  the  necessity  of  keeping 
vessels  clear  of  their  colonies.  An  effective  method 
of  removal,  frequently  practised  by  sailing-masters, 
is  to  drive  a  barnacled  vessel  into  fresh  water,  where 
the  animals  soon  die  and  drop  off. 

Belonging  to  the  same  order  of  animals  as  the  bar- 
nacles proper  are  the  acorn-shells,  those  crater-like 
eminences  that  are  found  so  abun- 
dantly   encrusting    rocks    at    about 
high-water  mark,  and  scarcely  less 
abundantly  on  the  surfaces  of  shells, 
drift-wood,  etc.    They  have  the  same 
general  structure  as  the  goose  bar- 
nacle, but  are  devoid  of  the  stalk  or  peduncle,  and 
are  hence  known  as   '  sessile'  barnacles.     Where 
attached  to  a  rock  they  leave  a  peculiar  circular 
stamp  of  lime,  which  is  not  infrequently  taken  for 
a  coral  impression. 

The  shell  of  the  acorn  is  usually  conical  in  out- 


OUR   CARCINOLOOICAL   FRIENDS.  1Q7 

line,  made  up  of  six  plates  in  its  circumference,  and 
with  a  lid  of  four  plates  covering  over  the  central 
orifice.  The  feathery  appendages  of  the  animal 
are  thrust  out  from  the  top  of  the  shell,  instead  of 
from  the  side,  as  we  found  it  in  the  goose  barnacle. 
Our  commonest  species  is  Balanus  balanoides,  an 
exceedingly  variable  form,  which  makes  dense 
crusts  on  rock-masses,  piles,  etc.  In  the  typical 
variety  the  acorns  or  cups  are  comparatively  low 
and  broad,  but  in  the  more  aberrant  forms  they  are 
greatly  elongated  and  more  nearly  tubular  in  ap- 
pearance. A  much  larger  species  is  Balanus  ebur- 


BALANUS  BALANOIDES.          BALANUS  EBURNEUS. 

neus,  the  '  ivory  barnacle,'  which  can  be  readily  dis- 
tinguished from  the  preceding  by  its  smooth  broad 
form  and  its  shelly  base.  It  is  abundant  on  all 
kinds  of  floating  or  submerged  timbers,  and  not 
rarely  accompanies  the  shells  of  various  Crustacea. 
Much  less  frequently  seen  about  our  coast  is  the 
coronated  acorn  (Coronula  diadema),  whose  seat  of 
habitation  is  the  skin  of  the  whale,  with  which 
animal  it  performs  long  journeys  over  the  sea. 


V. 


WORMS,  MOSS-POLYPS,  SPONGES,  ETC. 

WORMS  are  in  a  general  way  not  very  attrac- 
tive animals,  yet  they  present  much  that  is  at  the 
same  time  interesting  and  beautiful.  This  is  par- 
ticularly the  case  with  the  marine  forms,  whose 
burrows  can  be  traced  almost  everywhere  over  the 
expanse  of  tidal  flats  which  the  retreating  waters 
leave  behind  them.  At  tHese  times  the  animals 
remain  well  within  their  habitations,  from  which 
they  can  be  readily  extracted  through  the  use  of 
a  long-bladed  garden-trowel.  The  many-footed 
Nereis,  whose  superb  iridescence  rivals  in  metal- 
lic effect  the  lustre  of  the  tropical  beetles,  is  of  a 
type  of  beauty  that  is  distinctively  its  own ;  and  the 
same  may  be  said  of  the  medusa-like  Cirratulus  (PI. 
8,  Fig.  6),  of  the  green  Euchone,  or  of  the  gordian 
Amphitrite  (Plate  8,  Fig.  1),  with  its  crown  of 
flesh-colored  tentacles  and  blood-red  gills.  Some 
of  these  forms,  like  the  Serpulee,  inhabit  more  or 
less  permanently  calcareous  tubes  of  their  own  se- 
cretion ;  others,  by  exudation  of  a  binding  cement, 
construct  their  tubes  of  agglutinated  sand-parti- 
cles. Both  of  these  types  are  known  as  tubico- 
lous  worms.  To  a  third  group,  represented  by  the 
beautiful  Nereis  (PI.  8,  Fig.  9)  and  its  allies  (Lum- 
briconereis,  PI.  8,  Fig.  3,  and  the  brush -like  Eunice), 
108 


WORMS,   MOSS-POLYPS,   SPONGES,   ETC.       1Q9 

the  habit  of  frequently  running  about  or  sallying 
forth  has  given  the  name  of  the  *  runners'  (Erran- 
tia).  The  Nereis  itself  is  a  nocturnal  animal,  and 
sometimes  appears  in  large  numbers  swimming 
about  near  the  surface  of  the  ocean. 

All  the  forms  that  have  here  been  noted  have 
the  body  made  up  of  a  considerable  number  of 
rings  or  annuli,  ranging  to  several  hundred,  which 
on  either  side  give  origin  to  two  rows  of  spines 
or  bristles,  whence  the  term  Chsetopoda,  '  bristle- 
footed,'  as  applied  to  the  members  of  the  group 
collectively.  The  crooked  tubular  habitations  of 
Serpula  dianthus  can  be  seen  on  almost  all  ob- 
jects that  have  drifted  down  to 
about  low-water  level — on  old 
pots,  pebbles,  the  under  and 
lateral  faces  of  rocks,  surfaces 
of  shells,  etc.  "When  disturbed 
or  frightened,  the  animal  with- 
draws itself  into  its  tube,  which 
it  closes  by  means  of  a  plug  or 
operculum,  and  thus  places  it- 
self in  a  position  removed  from 
its  enemies.  When  extended 
it  presents  a  beautiful  appear- 
ance, with  its  distended  crown  of  brilliantly-tinted 
branchiae — red,  yellow,  purple,  and  brown — con- 
sisting of  some  thirty  or  more  delicate  feathery  fila- 
ments. The  brown  sea-wrack  occasionally  brings 
to  us,  although  less  frequently  than  on  the  New 
England  coast,  small  rounded  bodies,  not  much 
larger  than  a  pin's  head,  which  to  every  appearance 

10 


SERPUL.E. 


HO       WORMS,   MOSS-POLYPS,   SPONGES,   ETC. 

resemble  flattened  snails.  They  are  the  circular 
tubes  of  a  worm,  Spirorbis,  whose  relationship  is 
immediately  with  the  Serpulse. 

Of  the  group  of  worms  in  which  the  body  is  not 
distinctly  annulated,  known  as  false  annelids,  may 
be  mentioned  the  earthworm-like  Sipunculus  (PI.  8, 
Fig.  2),  which  can  be  easily  recognized  by  its  thick, 
fleshy,  and  irregularly  constricted  body,  and  by  the 
long  attenuated  anterior  extremity,  designated  the 
proboscis.  It  burrows  in  the  sand  and  mud-bot- 
toms, like  the  majority, of  the  marine  worms. 

The  free  surface  of  the  wide  ocean,  no  less  than 
the  sheltered  bays  of  the  seaboard,  harbors  a  very 
interesting  worm-like  animal,  about  an  inch  in 
length,  and  shaped  somewhat  like  a  lance,  which 
disports  itself  in  rather  characteristic  fashion,  mov- 
ing by  rapid  jerks  through  the  water.  It  has  long 
been  familiar  to  naturalists  as  the  Sagitta,  or  dart 
(PL  8,  Fig.  5),  but  to  this  day  nothing  positive  is 
1  known  concerning  its  relationships.  The  body  is 
white,  translucent,  and  permits  the  alimentary  canal 
to  be  distinctly  seen  in  the  interior.  Laterally  it  is  ex- 
panded into  a  sort  of  fin-like  membrane,  and  a  some- 
what similar  fin  rounds  off  the  tail  region.  Two  dark 
pigment  specks,  the  eyes,  can  be  readily  detected  on 
the  head. 

MOSS-POLYPS. 

Much  of  the  sea-wrack  that  is  drifted  to  our 
shores  shows  on  its  surface  peculiar  pitted  incrus- 
tations which  sometimes  occur  only  in  scattered 
patches,  at  other  times  in  more  or  less  continu- 
ous ramifications.  The  same  structure  can  fre- 


PLATE    8. 


FIG. 

1.  Am  phi  trite  ornata. 

2.  Sipunculus  Gouldii. 

3.  Lumbriconereis  opalina. 

4.  Siphonostomum  affine. 

5.  Sagitta  elegans. 

6.  Cirratulus  grandis. 

7.  Clymenella  torquata. 

8.  Lepidonotus  sublevis. 

9.  Nereis  pelagica. 

10.  Autolytus  cornutus. 


PL.    8. 


WORMS,   MOSS-POLYPS,  SPONGES,    ETC.       HI 

quently  be  seen  on  the  insides  of  shells,  around 
pebbles,  over  the  tubes  of  the  serpula,  etc.  From 
each  of  the  tiny  pits,  which  are  often  no  larger 
than  a  pin-point,  protruded  during  the  life  of  the 
compound  colony  a  minute  polypide,  delicately 
crowned  with  tentacles,'  in  many  ways  reminding 
one  of  the  polyps  of  the  hydroid  colonies  with 
which  we  have  already  become  acquainted.  But 
these  so-called  moss-polyps  or  lace- corals — the 
Polyzoa  of  naturalists — show  a  considerable  ad- 
vance in  structure  over  their  hydroid  brethren,  in- 
asmuch as  they  are  provided  with  a  distinct  ali- 
mentary tract — stomach,  intestine,  etc. — clearly 
marked  off  from  the  rest  of  the  body,  a  central 
nerve-mass,  and  other  specialized  organs  which  are 
wholly  wanting  in  the  other  group.  The  mouth  is 
situated  at  one  side  of,  or  within,  the  crown  of  ten- 
tacles, receiving  its  full  complement  of  nourishment 
from  the  water-currents  which  are  constantly  being 
impelled  towards  it  by  the  vibrating 
hairs  (cilia)  on  the  tentacles. 

Perhaps  the  commonest  of  our  en- 
crusting forms  is  Escharina,  whose 
delicate  tracery  can  frequently  be 
seen  interwoven  in  concentric  layers 
amen?  or  over  the  serpula  tubes,  ESCHARINA 

T  .  T     -,  £  (magnified). 

making  rounded  masses  from  two  to 
six  inches  across.  In  this  condition  they  may  be 
easily  mistaken  for  pebbles,  but  their  comparative 
lightness,  and  the  numerous  minute  holes  which 
become  visible  on  closer  examination,  soon  disclose 
their  true  character. 


112       WORMS,   MOSS-POLYPS,  SPONGES,   ETC. 

Other  encrusting  forms,  but  with  the  pores  or 
cells  arranged  in  only  a  single  tier,  are  the  '  sea- 


MEMBRANIPORA  (magnified).         POLYPIDE  (magnified).        ALCYONIDIUM. 

mats,'  which  are  usually  found  on  the  fronds  of  the 
sea-weed.  One  of  these  (Membranipora)  makes 
small  scale-like  patches,  while  another  (Flustra) 
occurs  in  ramifying  or  spreading  branches.  A  less 
readily  recognizable  form  of  polyzoan,  the  Alcyo- 
nidium,  making  fleshy  crusts  a  third  of  an  inch  or 
more  in  thickness,  is  frequently 
found  enveloping  small  stones, 
twigs,  etc. 

While  perhaps  the  most  distinc- 
tive polyzoans  are  the  ones  which 
jnake  crusts  like  those  above  de- 
scribed,   others    grow    in    erect, 
branching  colonies,  and  thus  still 
more  closely  resemble  the  swaying 
fronds  of  the  true  polyps.    One  of 
these  is  the  common  Bugula,  whose 
tree-like  forms,  bearing  tiny  cups 
on  their  upright  branches,  strongly  recall  the  ser- 
tularians  or  sea-firs.     They  are  of  particular  interest 
to  the  microscopist  since  they  show  to  special  ad- 


BUGULA. 


WORMS,   MOSS-POLYPS,   SPONGES,   ETC.       H3 

vantage  certain  structures  that  are  not  present  in 
all  the  members  of  the  class.  These  are  the  i  bird- 
head  processes'  (avicularia),  little  snapping  bodies 
of  the  general  shape  of  a  bird's  head,  which  are 
found  attached  to  the  cells,  but  of  whose  real 
functions  we  as  yet  know  very  little.  That  they 
seize  by  a  sort  of  instinctive  movement  little  aquatic 
objects  has  been  long  since  demonstrated,  but  the 
wherefore  of  this  action  still  remains  to  be  as- 
certained, since  the  particles  thus  caught  can- 
not readily  be  turned  to  account  by  the  animal. 
Other  forms  have  in  place  of  these  avicularia  long 
lashes  or  whips  (vibracula),  which  are  in  almost 
constant  motion,  and  may,  at  least  in  part,  serve  to 
keep  the  colony  clean  from  adhering  particles.  The 
movement  of  both  of  these  or- 
gans can  be  easily  followed  in  the 
field  of  the  microscope. 

A  beautiful  rosette-formed  poly- 
zoan,  Crisia  eburnea,  whose  attach- 
ment is  the  frond  of  the  sea-weed, 
is  not  rarely  found  scattered  over 
the  sands ;  it  is  easily  distinguished, 
apart  from  its  manner  of  growth, 
by  the  calcareous  or  limy  character  of  its  ivory- 
white  habitations.  Another  white  form  (Pedicellina 
Americana),  with  minute  club-shaped  individuals, 
weaves  a  delicate  tracery  around  the  branches  or 
stems  of  other  polyp  colonies,  hydroids,  etc. 


10* 


114       WORMS,  MOSS-POLYPS,  SPONGES,   ETC. 


SPONGES. 

Among  the  lowest  forms  of  life  that  drift  to  our 
shores  are  sponges  of  one  kind  or  another,  many 
of  them,  doubtless,  wafted  northward  on  the  cur- 
rent of  the  Gulf  Stream,  and  then  distributed  by 
local  storms.  Some  of  these  are  of  the  horny 
character  seen  in  the  ordinary  sponge  of  commerce, 
but  usually  they  are  of  a  much  looser  texture,  and 
with  a  distinct  disposition  to  branch.  In  the  living 
condition  of  the  animal  this  fibrous  mass  is  envel- 
oped in  a  soft  jelly-like  substance,  frequently  most 
brilliantly  colored  in  tints  of  yellow,  brown,  and 
red,  which  constitutes  the  active  or  vitalized  mat- 
ter of  the  organism,  the  horny  fibres  themselves 
being  merely  an  accessory  in  the  way  of  an  internal 
support  or  skeleton.  The  entire  mass  is  then  per- 
meated by  innumerable  canals,  into  which  the  sea- 
water  gains  access  by  a  multitude  of  external  pores, 
and  from  which  it  is  expelled  into  a  number  of 
larger  channels,  into  which  the  canalulse  open, 
and  thence  into  the  open  sea  again.  A  series  of 
perpetual  circulations  is  thus  kept  up  within  the 
substance  of  the  animal,  the  cilia  lining  the  chan- 
nels helping  along  the  water,  and  with  it  the 
microscopic  food-particles  that  may  be  contained 
therein.  The  excurrent  orifices  (oscula)  are  of 
much  larger  size  than  the  incurrent  pores,  and  are 
frequently  situated,  crater-like,  on  special  emi- 
nences. In  our  ordinary  wash-sponges  their  posi- 
tions are  clearly  indicated  in  the  larger  spaces  left 
on  the  surface  between  the  fibres. 


WORMS,    MOSS-POLYPS,   SPONGES,   ETC.       H5 

There  are  few  objects  more  interesting  to  watch 
than  a  sponge  in  action,  but  with  us,  unfortunately, 
the  only  native  sponges  of  consequence  are  either 
thinly-branched  or  encrusting  forms,  which  scarcely 
permit  of  observations  being  made  upon  their  man- 
ner of  living.  One  of  these  is  the  Microscionia 
prolifera,  a  rather  scanty  creeper  on  rocks  and 
shells,  having  when  fresh  a  bright  red  color. 
When  full-grown  it  rises  up  into  bunchy  masses, 
measuring  six  inches  or  more  across,  which  may 
be  found  scattered  between  the  sedges  of  the  sand 
where  the  latter  has  been  left  exposed  at  low-water. 
A  much  more  delicate  species,  readily  distinguished 
by  its  long  and  slender  '  oculated'  branches,  is  the 
Chalina  arbuscula,  whose  habitat  appears  to  extend 
along  the  greater  part  of  the  Atlantic  coast. 

The  '  sea-bread'  or  «  sea-crackers,'  rounded  yel- 
lowish masses  of  an  exceedingly  light  texture,  which 
sometimes  appear  after  a  storm,  are  also  skeletal 
parts  of  sponges,  but  their  closely-packed  and  re- 
markably fine  fibrous  threads  are  composed  princi- 
pally of  silica  instead  of  horn,  and  thus  approxi- 
mate the  type  of  the  large  and  important  group  of 
silicious  sponges,  to  which  the  '  glass  rope'  and 
4  Venus's  flower-basket,'  two  of  the  most  exquisite 
of  nature's  objects,  also  belong.  The  sea-bread 
(Suberites)  has  been  dredged  alive  on  the  Massa- 
chusetts coast,  and  it  has  therefore  been  conjec- 
tured that  its  home  must  extend  to  that  region. 

Much  more  insignificant  than  the  preceding  is 
the  form  (Cliona)  that  attacks  oyster-  and  clam- 
shells, burrowing  into  their  midst  from  all  direc- 


116        WORMS,   MOSS-POLYPS,   SPONGES,   ETC. 

tions,  and  soon  reducing  them  to  powder.  Such 
sponge-bored  shells  and  rock-fragments  may  be 
readily  recognized  by  the  numerous  small  holes 
that  open  upon  the  surface. 

FORAMINIFERA. 

Still  lower  in  the  scale  of  organization  than  the 
sponges  are  a  number  of  animal  forms  whose  exist- 
ence is  not  very  generally  suspected  by  the  visiting 
public.  We  walk  leisurely  over  the  sands,  little 
suspecting  that  in  so  doing  we  may  be  ruthlessly 
crushing  to  powder  thousands  of  minute  shells  that 
lie  buried  beneath  our  feet.  To  the  ordinary  ob- 
server the  sand  appears  to  be  a  mass  of  nearly 
homogeneous  particles,  little  granules  of  white 
and  black  quartz,  through  which  are  scattered  at 
intervals  scales  of  mica,  and  exceedingly  minute 
fragments  of  another  mineral  known  as  horn- 
blende. These  are  all  derived  from  the  destruc- 
tion of  certain  rock-masses — the  granites  and  their 
allies  principally — situated  somewhere  within  the 
continental  border,  and  merely  accumulated  by  the 
sea  after  it  has  received  the  products  of  destruction 
from  the  various  rivers  discharging  into  it.  But  a 
more  critical  examination  of  the  sand  shows  that  in 
addition  to  the  mineral  substances  above  mentioned 
it  contains  at  times — and  it  may  be  said,  at  almost 
all  times — great  quantities  of  tiny  rounded  shells 
whose  dimensions  barely  exceed  those  of  the  sarid- 
particles  themselves.  Without  the  aid  of  a  magni- 
fier these  shells  are  almost  undistinguishable ;  but 
the  lens  and  a  practised  eye  will  soon  pick  out  the 


WORMS,   MOSS-POLYPS,   SPONGES,   ETC.       H7 

interesting  mites  whose   life-history  we   are   now 
prepared  to  read. 

Placed  in  the  field  of  a  microscope,  these  shells 
exhibit  on  their  surfaces  innumerable  punctse  or 
dots,  which  are  in  reality  minute  pores  leading 
through  the  shell  into  the  interior.  Through  these 
pores  the  animal  substance  that  is  contained  within 
may  be  extended  in  the  form  of  delicate  processes, 
known  as  false  feet  (pseudopodia),  by  means  of 
which  the  currents  of  food-particles  may  be  di- 
rected to  the  organism.  The  bulk  of  the  animal 
itself  consists  of  a  tiny  bit  of  jelly-like  substance, 
known  as  protoplasm,  which  shows  none  of  the 
organs  that  are  common  to  the  higher  animals; 
that  is  to  say,  there  is  neither  mouth,  stomach, 
heart,  nor  nerve.  But  despite  these  deficiencies  the 
animal  passes  through  the  cycle  of  life  with  a  free 
and  satisfactory  performance  of  the  usual  processes 
of  assimilation,  growth,  and  reproduction.  There 
are  few  kinds  of  animals  that  are  simpler  in  struc- 
ture than  these  so-called  pore-bearers  (Forami- 
nifera),  and  one  of  these  is  the  almost  universally 
distributed  proteus-animalcule  of  our  fresh  waters 
(Amoaba),  which  differs  only  in  the  absence  of  a 
shell. 

The  simplest  form  of  foraminiferal  shell  is  a 
hollow  sphere,  in  which  the  protoplasm,  or  active 
animal  substance,  is  lodged.  In  other  forms  this 
primitive  sphere  buds  out  into  a  number  of  addi- 
tional spheres,  which  gradually  increase  in  size 
from  the  oldest  to  the  newest,  and  may  develop 
either  one  in  advance  of  the  other  in  a  straight 


118        WORMS,    MOSS-POLYPS,   SPONGES,    ETC. 

line,  or,  what  is  more  usually  the  case,  in  one  or 
more  circles  around  the  initial  sphere.  A  com- 
plex arrangement  of  chambers  may  thus  be  built 
up,  especially  if  the  system  of  development  has 
proceeded  along  more  than  a  single  plane.  Of 
such  a  complex  character  is  our  little  Rotalia  of 
the  ocean  sands,  the  different  chambers  in  the  shell 
of  which  can  be  clearly  traced  out  with  the  aid  of 
the  microscope. 

The  Foramiriifera  lead  an  apparently  very  inde- 
pendent life  on  the  ocean  wave,  tossed  hither  and 
thither  among  the  seething  waters :  their  home  is 
not  merely  the  surface,  but  extends  to  the  gloomier 
shades  of  the  abyss.  At  the  bottom  of  the  sea  the 
shells  of  the  dead  animals  accumulate  in  prodigious 
numbers,  forming  there  a  deep  white  or  gray  mud 
known  as  the  4  Atlantic  ooze.'  It  is  this  same  sub- 
stance compacted  which  constitutes  true  chalk,  and 
likewise  much  of  the  hard  limestone  and  marble 
which  we  see  everywhere  about  us.  At  one  time 
the  areas  where  we  now  find  chalk  and  marble 
were  beneath  the  sea,  but  through  movements  of 
the  earth's  crust  of  one  kind  or  another  they  have 
been  brought  to  their  present  inland  positions. 
The  so-called  '  greensands'  or  '  marls'  of  New  Jer- 
sey are  largely  a  foraminiferal  composition,  the 
little  green  pellets  of  the  mineral  glauconite, 
which  give  the  distinctive  appearance  to  the  sand, 
representing  principally  the  fillings  or  casts  of  an 
endless  number  of  foraminiferal  shells,  from  which 
the  lime  has  been  removed  through  solution. 


WORMS,  MOSS-POLYPS,  SPONGES,   ETC.       H9 

Some  idea  of  the  vast  numbers  in  which  these 
minute  organisms  occur  may  be  gathered  from  the 
fact  that  an  ounce  of  sand  taken  from  the  beach  of 
Atlantic  City,  despite  the  breakages  to  which  the 
minute  shells  were  liable  in  being  tossed  and  rubbed 
about,  was  estimated  to  contain  fully  18,000  indi- 
viduals of  a  single  species  of  Nonionina,  and  that  a 
similar  measure  taken  from  the  sands  of  Cape  May 
yielded  by  computation  upwards  of  3.8,000  individ- 
uals of  the  same  species. 


VI. 

SOME    COASTWISE    FISHES. 

AMONG  the  odds  and  ends  that  the  incoming 
flood  casts  upon  the  beach  are  the  peculiar  pillow- 
shaped  objects  with  long-drawn-out  corners  which 
are  generally  known  under  the  name  of  *  sea- 
purses.'  Great  is  the  discussion  attending  the 
finding  of  one  of  these  sea-purses,  and  many  are 
the  conjectures  regarding  their  true  nature.  The 
specimens  found  on  the  sand  are  usually  dry  and 
split  in  the  purse  portion,  showing  nothing  within ; 


'  SEA-PURSE.' 

but  when  freshly  drawn  from  the  sea-weed  to 
which  they  were  at  one  time  firmly  attached,  they 
contain  each  a  solitary  egg,  or,  if  development  has 
proceeded  sufficiently  far,  an  embryo  in  place 
of  the  egg.  This  embryo  is  the  young  of  the 
skate  or  ray,  that  common  representative  of  the 
shark  tribe  of  fishes,  whose  broad  fleshy  masses, 
with  a  grinning  mouth  on  the  under  surface,  are 
120 


SOME  COASTWISE  FISHES. 

frequently  exposed  on  our  market-stalls.  The 
purse,  or  <  shark-barrow,'  as  it  is  termed  in  Eng- 
land, is  the  egg-capsule  of  this  singular  creature, 
by  whom  it  is  deposited  in  the  forest  of  sea-weed, 
to  be  there  safely  anchored  by  one  or  more  of  its 
filamentous  processes. 

The  rays  or  skates  (Kaia)  are  not  uncommon 
along  our  coast,  where  they  occupy  the  bottom 
water,  skimming  about  just  over  the  sand  or  mud. 
Their  flabby  masses  are  occasionally  stranded  on 
the  beach,  where  they  are  soon  picked  to  pieces  by 
the  ever-watchful  sea-fowl  in  search  of  such  deli- 
cacies. Of  the  remaining  cartilaginous  skeleton, 
the  jaws,  whose  small  pavement-like  teeth  emi- 
nently serve  the  purposes  of  grinding,  generally 
remain  the  longest,  and  are  often  found  still  at- 
tached to  each  other  when  nothing  else  remains. 

Somewhat  similar  jaws,  but  with  the  teeth  sharp 
and  pointed,  instead  of  flat  and  pavement-like  as 
in  the  rays,  are  the  belongings  of  true  sharks,  sev- 
eral species  of  which  wander  about  our  shores.  The 
commonest  of  these  is  the  sand-shark  or  shovel- 
nose  ( Carcharias  Americanus),  an  exceedingly  vora- 
cious animal,  measuring  when  full  grown  some 
six  or  seven  feet.  The  teeth  are  sharp  and  awl-like, 
whence  the  name  Odontaspis  applied  to  the  genus 
by  many  naturalists.  In  the  majority  of  the  sharks 
the  teeth  are  disposed  in  several  distinct  series,  but 
only  those  of  the  outer  row  are  functional  at  any 
one  time.  When  these  are  lost  they  are  imme- 
diately replaced  by  the  teeth  of  the  second  series, 
which,  as  well  as  the  remaining  teeth,  are  articu- 
v  11 


122  SOME  COASTWISE  FISHES. 

lated  to  the  jaw  in  such  a  manner  as  to  permit  of 
their  erection  when  necessary.  In  this  manner  the 
different  series  are  successively  brought  into  play. 

It  is  impossible  in  the  scope  of  a  work  of  this 
kind  to  enter  into  anything  like  a  general  descrip- 
tion of  the  New  Jersey  coast  fishes,  since  their  his- 
tory is  largely  the  history  of  the  fishes  of  the 
entire  Atlantic  border.  But  reference  to  a  few  of 
the  more  striking  forms — such,  more  particularly, 
as  by  their  peculiar  outlines  are  apt  to  attract  at- 
tention— may  not  be  amiss  in  this  place.  One  of 
these  is  the  toad-fish  (Batrachus  tau),  a  rather  fierce 


TOAD-FISH. 

and  repulsive-looking  animal,  having  somewhat  the 
appearance  of  a  toad,  whence  its  name.  The  de- 
termination with  which  it  holds  on  to  any  object 
that  it  may  have  seized  has  given  to  it  the  name 
of  '  sea  bull-dog.'  It  inhabits  largely  the  oyster- 
beds,  where  the  young  make  free  use  of  the  empty 
shells  for  their  domiciles. 

The  fishing-frog    (Lophius  piscatorius\   also    so 
called  from  its  resemblance  to  a  batrachian,  but 


SOME  COASTWISE  FISHES.  123 

representing  a  family  very  distinct  from  that  of 
the  toad-fish,  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing of  the  coast-fishes.  Its  greatly  expanded  body 
and  head,  with  broad  transverse  mouth — whence 
the  names  '  kettle-maw,'  '  wide-gut/  <  all-mouth/ 
etc. — and  the  peculiar  '  angling'  appendages  rising 
from  the  back,  impart  to  the  animal  an  individ- 
uality which  is,  to  say  the  least,  striking.  It  was 
the  supposition  of  the  earlier  naturalists — a  suppo- 
sition, doubtless,  resting  chiefly  upon  a  fable  that 


FISHING-FROG  (ANGLER). 

had  been  handed  down  from  antiquity — that  the 
purpose  of  the  foremost  of  the  filiform  append- 
ages on  the  back  was  the  securing  of  food,  the  fish 
being  actually  credited  with  a  knowledge  of  the 
art  of  angling.  Hence  to  this  day  it  is  still  com- 
monly known  as  the  '  angler.'  But  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  these  peculiar  whips,  as  well  as  the 
various  other  membranous  appendages  that  belong 
to  the  body,  and  the  coloring  of  the  surface,  are 


124  SOME  COASTWISE  FISHES. 

part  of  a  scheme  of  general  deception  by  which 
the  animal  succeeds  in  making  itself  almost  undis- 
tinguishable  among  the  rocks  and  grasses  which  it 
inhabits. 

The  angler  is  an  exceptionally  voracious  fish,  its 
ungovernable  appetite  being  well  ministered  to  by 
a  superabundance  of  mouth  and  stomach.  It  is 
stated  on  authority  that  seven  wild  ducks  have  been 
taken  from  the  stomach  of  a  single  one  of  these 
animals.  The  eggs  are  deposited  in  a  long  float- 
ing gelatinous  ribbon  measuring  some  thirty  feet  or 
more  in  length,  and  weighing,  it  is  said,  as  much 
as  forty  pounds. 

The  <  moon-fishes'  (Selene)  and  *  dollar-fishes' 
(Yomer),  which  can  be  recognized  by  their  rounded 
and  greatly  compressed  upright  bodies,  are  inter- 
esting little  animals,  much  appreciated  for  their 
brilliant  sheen. 

There  are  a  number  of  long-beaked  fishes  found 
on  the  coast,  one  or  more  of  which  can  generally 
be  picked  up  in  the  grass-covered  shoals  that  ex- 
tend along  a  part  of  the  shore.  Among  the  better- 
known  of  these  are  the  pipe-fishes  (Siphostoma) 
and  sea-horses  (Hippocampus),  which  differ  princi- 
pally from  one  another  in  the  shape  of  the  body, 
the  former  being  greatly  elongated,  while  the  latter 
is  gracefully  flexed  or  coiled,  the  head  and  anterior 
part  of  the  body  recalling  the  knight  of  the  chess- 
board. The  males  of  both  species  are  provided 
with  peculiar  pouches  placed  on  the  under  surface 
of  the  body,  in  which  the  eggs,  deposited  there  by 


SOME  COASTWISE  FISHES. 


125 


the   female,  are   cared  for.      The  pipe-fishes  are 
rather  slow  in  their  movements,  and  can  be  readily 
picked  up  by  the  hand  or  net ;  they  are 
frequently  stranded. 

Of  comparative  rarity  with  us,  al- 
though more  abundant  in  the  s@uthern 
waters,  is  the  tobacco-pipe  fish  (Fistularia 
tabaccarm),  which  can  be  immediately 
distinguished  from  the  pipe-fish  proper 
by  its  generally  flexible  body,  its  greatly 
elongated  beak,  and  the  singular  lash-like 
tail. 

A  widely  differing  form,  but  yet  char- 
acterized by  a  prominent  beak,  is  the  half- 
bill  (Hemiramphus), 
so  called  from  the 
unequal  development 
of  the  two  jaws,  the 
lower  one  alone  being 
specially  elongated. 
Here  also  belong  the 
gar-fishes  or  thread- 
fishes  (Belone). 

The  two  remain- 
ing forms  with  which 
we  close  our  sketch 
of  some  of  the  more 
striking  of  the  New 
Jersey  coast  fishes 
are  known  as  puffers,  from  the  habit  they  have  of 
inflating  their  bodies  by  rapid  inspirations,  whether 
of  air  or  of  water.  The  swell-toad  or  egg-fish 

11* 


SEA-HORSE. 


PIPE-FISH. 


126 


SOME   COASTWISE  FISHES. 


(Tetrodon  turgidus)  is  an  interesting  little  animal, 
very  common  on  some  parts  of  the  Atlantic  coast. 
When  hauled  from  the  water  it  immediately  in- 
flates itself,  and  sometimes  several  inflations,  ac- 


SWELL-TOAD  (PUFFEE). 


companied  by  as  many  collapses,  will  follow  one 
another  in  rapid  succession.  This  procedure  is 
especially  noticeable  when  the  animal  is  irritated. 
Of  much  larger  dimensions,  and  strongly  armed 


ZEBRA-FISH  (RABBIT-FISH). 


with  spines,  are  the  porcupine-fishes  (Diodon)  and 
the  rabbit-fishes  (Chilomycterus),  the  latter  beauti- 
fully ornamented  with  regular  wavy  lines  and  spots 
of  a  dark  color. 


INDEX. 


Acorn-shell,  106. 
Actinia,  69. 
Alcyonidium,  112. 
Amorcecium,  58. 
Amphitrite,  108. 
Angler,  123. 
Anomia,  47. 
Arbacia,  77. 
Argonaut,  15. 
Ark-shell,  50. 
Asterias,  73. 
Astrangia,  72. 
Auger-shell,  29. 
Aurelia,  66. 

Balanus,  106. 
Barnacles,  102. 
Batrachus,  122. 
Beach-flea,  95. 
Belone,  125. 
Birgo,  85. 
Boltenia,  56. 
Bopyrus,  96. 
Botryllus,  57. 
Brittle-stars,  75. 
Buccinum,  20. 
Bugula,  112. 

Calamary,  9. 
Callinectes,  85. 
Campanularia,  82. 
Cancer,  85. 


Caprella,  96. 
Carcharias,  121. 
Caudina,  80. 
Cerianthus,  71. 
Chalina,  115. 
Chilomycterus,  126. 
Cirratulus,  108. 
Clam,  32. 
Cliona,  115. 
Corals,  71. 
Coronula,  107. 
Crabs,  81. 
Crangon,  94. 
Crepidula,  30. 
Crisia,  113 
Crucible-shell,  32, 
Ctenophora,  67. 
Cuttle-fishes,  8. 
Cyanea,  65. 
Cynthia,  56. 

Dactylometra,  64. 
Diodon,  126. 
Diplothyra,  40. 
Dog-whelk,  21. 
Dollar-fish,  124. 
Donax,  44. 
Drill,  30. 

Echinarachnius,  76. 
Egg-fish,  125. 
Escharina,  111. 


127 


128 


INDEX. 


Euchone,  108. 
Eunice,  108. 
Eupagurus,  92. 

Feather-stars,  75. 
Fiddler-crab,  81. 
Fishes,  120. 
Fishing-frog,  122. 
Fistularia,  125. 
Flustra,  112. 
Foraminifera,  116. 
Fulgur,  17. 

Gammarus,  96. 
Gebia,  93. 
Gelasimus,  84. 
Goose  barnacles,  104. 

Halcampa,  71. 
Half-bill,  125. 
Hemiramphus,  125. 
Hermit-crabs,  89. 
Hippa,  95. 
Hippocampus,  124. 
Hoppers,  95. 
Horse-muscle,  52. 
Horseshoe  crab,  99. 
Hydractinia,  24. 

Idotea,  97. 
Jelly-fishes,  63. 
King-crab,  99. 

Lace-corals,  111. 
Lepas,  106. 
Limnoria,  97. 
Limulus,  101. 
Littorina,  24. 


Lobster,  93. 
Loligo,  9. 
Lophius,  122. 
Lumbriconereis,  108. 

Mactra,  34. 
Medusae,  63. 
Megalops,  86. 
Melampus,  31. 
Mellita,  77. 
Membranipora,  112. 
Metridium,  70. 
Microscionia,  115. 
Modiola,  52. 
Mole-crab,  95. 
Molgula,  55. 
Moon-fish,  124. 
Moss-polyps,  110. 
Muscle,  51. 
Mya,  36. 
Mysis,  94. 
Mytilus,  61. 

Nassa,  21. 
Natica,  27. 
Nautilus,  14. 
Nereis,  108. 
Nonionina,  119. 
Nucula,  50. 

Obelia,  62. 
Ocypoda,  87. 
Ommastrephes,  12. 
Ophiura,  75. 
Opossum-shrimp,  94. 
Orchestia,  95. 
Oyster,  45. 

Palaemon,  94. 
Pandora,  44. 


INDEX. 


129 


Panopeus,  88. 

Sea-anemones,  68. 

Parypha,  62. 

Sea-bread,  115. 

Pear-conch,  17. 

Sea-cracker,  115. 

Pecten,  48. 

Sea-cucumbers,  78. 

Pedicellina,  113. 

Sea-eggs,  75. 

Pennaria,  60. 

Sea-fir,  59. 

Periwinkle,  24. 

Sea-horse,  124. 

Petricola,  37. 

Sea-  peach,  56. 

Pholas,  39. 

Sea-pear,  56. 

Physalia,  66. 

Sea-pork,  67. 

Pinnotheres,  88. 

Sea-purses,  120. 

Pipe-fish,  124. 

Sea-spider,  88,  102. 

Platyonichus,  85. 

Sea-urchins,  75. 

Pleurobrachia,  67. 

Selene,  124. 

Polyps,  58. 

Sepiola,  13. 

Porcupine-fish,  126. 

Serpula,  109. 

Porpita,  66. 

Sertularia,  59. 

Portuguese  man-of-war,  66. 

Sesarme,  87. 

Prawns,  93. 

Sharks,  121. 

Psolus,  79. 

Ship-  worm,  40. 

Puffer,  125. 

Shrimps,  93. 

Purple,  30. 

Siphostoma,  124. 

Purpura,  30. 

Sipunculus,  110. 

Pycnogonoids,  102. 

Skate,  120. 

Slipper-limpet,  30. 

Quahog,  35. 

Solecurtus,  44. 

Solen,  42. 

Rabbit-fish,  126. 

Spirorbis,  110. 

Kay,  120. 

Spirula,  14. 

Eazor-fish,  42. 

Sponges,  114. 

Eotalia,  118. 

Squid,  9. 

Squill,  97. 

Sagartia,  71. 

Squirts,  55. 

Sagitta,  110. 

Star-fishes,  73. 

Sand-clam,  36. 

Stenosoma,  97. 

Sand-dollar,  75. 

Strongylocentrotus,  77. 

Sand-flea,  95. 

Suberites,  115. 

Saxicava,  42. 

Surf-clam,  34. 

Scalaria,  30. 

Swell-toad,  125. 

Scallop,  48. 
i 

Synapta,  78. 

130 


INDEX. 


Talorchestia,  96. 
Tellina,  44. 
Terebra,  29. 
Teredo,  40. 
Tetrodon,  126. 
Thread-fish,  125. 
Toad-fish,  122. 
Tobacco-pipe  fish,  125. 
Tubularia,  61. 
Tunicates,  55. 

Urosalpinx,  30. 
Velella,  66. 


Venus,  34. 
Vomer,  124. 

Wedge-shell,  44. 
Wentletrap,  30. 
Whelk,  20. 
Worms,  108. 

Xylotrya,  42. 
Yoldia,  50. 

Zebra-fish,  126. 
Zoea,  86. 


THE    END. 


BY    THE    AUTHOR    OK    THIS    VOLUMES. 

TOWN  GEOLOGY: 

THE  LESSON  OF  THE  PHILADELPHIA  ROCKS. 

STUDIES  OF  NATURE  ALONG  THE  HIGHWAYS  AND  AMONG  THE 
BYWAYS  OF  A  METROPOLITAN  TOWN. 

8vo.    Cloth.     With  Illustrations  of  the  Fossils  of  the  Marls,  Sketches 

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BY  THE  AUTHOR   OF  THIS  VOLUME. 
1555. 

THE  GEOLOGICAL  EVIDENCES 
OF  EVOLUTION. 

A  POPULAR  EXPOSITION  OF  FACTS  BEARING  UPON  THE 
DARWINIAN  THEORY. 

By  ANGELO    HEILPRIN, 

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